Letterbomb
Dear Yuzu,
I've just received word that I've been accepted into the Lancers training program. To know that I have been granted an honorable place in history, that I will someday aide in the struggle against Academia, fills me with a certain excitement. But reality does not escape me; I shake at the thought of the horror I am going to face. To risk my very soul every time I duel is not something I take lightly. If I did, I don't think I would have been accepted as a Lancer-in-training.
The chairwoman says that we alone stand between Academia and the end of all things. What a daunting task! I find myself wondering what you think of it. As one of the first Lancers jumping headfirst into the conflict, I imagine your feelings must be more accurate than mine. What I can only speculate on, you're actually living through. Is the mantle really as heavy as I imagine it to be? And what about the fight you had against the Obelisk Force during Battle Royale—was it as terrifying as it looked? You seemed more indignant than afraid, but I know looks can be deceiving.
Stay strong. If anyone can survive, it's you.
Wish you were here,
Masumi
Dear Yuzu,
Today, Yaiba and I had our worst fear confirmed: Hokuto was indeed locked into a card, well before Battle Royale had even begun. My best friend is in a place far past anywhere I have ever been, or could ever go. I can't believe it. I can't believe it.
After training, Yaiba and I went off to the LDS center court. We sat in the stands. We mourned. I've never seen Yaiba so wracked by grief; I'm confident to say that he has never seen me so utterly paralyzed. The whole arena was silent and still around us, as though it solemnly took notice that there are only two of us now. The stars glimmered down on us softly, the night embracing us like a gentle touch to the cheek or a lengthy, regretful goodbye. Hokuto is no longer here, and yet, he still is. His memory follows us. And when the time comes, he will ride with us into battle.
With a heavy heart,
Masumi
Dear Yuzu,
The current Lancers are: Sakaki Yuya, Gongenzaka Noboru, Sawatari Shingo, Kurosaki Shun, Akaba Reiji, Akaba Reira, Dennis Mcfield, Tsukikage, and… Serena.
I have remained in denial long enough. I asked our instructor of it today, my tone apologetic for asking a question unrelated to our training. She was annoyed, but answered me anyway: "Serena is a Lancer, and Hiragi Yuzu is not." So I probed further: if Serena isn't you, then who is she? And where are you? I was silenced before I could finish, but I will find my answer one way or another. I always do.
Still, I am convinced that you are safe. I sometimes imagine my fellow Lancers-in-training falling in battle. As painful as it is for me, Yaiba's death is one I can picture easily. Yours is an image my brain refuses to create. That has to mean something. I've known Yaiba for far longer, I have more reason to trust his skill, and yet my faith in you exceeds my faith in him. That has to mean something.
Yours,
Masumi
Dear Yuzu,
Our training is brutal. Brutal is our training. It has less to do with dueling and more to do with sheer survival.
Every day before dawn, we're taken to the desolate outskirts of the city. We're dropped into pits and told to climb out under the time limit—if we fail, our ropes are cut and we're forced to start over despite our injuries. We're blindfolded and dropped off at undisclosed locations, the GPS on our duel disks blocked, and told to find our way back before sundown or risk being left behind. When it rains, we're forced to slosh through the mud as we go through impossible obstacle courses.
It rained heavily the other day. Please excuse my atrocious handwriting—I sprained two of my fingers, and I suspect I may have broken a third. My left shoulder was also dislocated and was only popped back into place when a fellow trainee took pity on me. Our instructor punished us for that—him for coming to my aide, and me for being so weak. No one is going to help me on the battlefield, she said. I should have popped my shoulder back in myself, or otherwise found a way to carry on.
I have been in solitary confinement ever since, spared only one dinner roll a night to sustain me. My room is small, only about four by five feet, with a single skylight window overhead. There is no other source of light. Hokuto comes to visit all the time, flying down to see me in all his celestial wonder. I sometimes ask my father for advice, and his words are as wise and sensible as ever. I've had a pen and paper with me all this time, but it is only at his insistence that I write you with the last few moments of daylight I have left. I didn't want you to see me humiliated, but I miss you more than words can say. If this is the closest I can be to you, so be it.
I know why I'm here. If I can't survive training, I won't be able to survive actual combat. I know this. I will never be so weak as to accept help again.
There are whispers among the guards that Yaiba has been injured, and badly. Placed into a condemned building and told to escape before the bomb detonated. He didn't make it out on time. He's apparently in the hospital now.
While he hasn't been dropped from the program, we Lancers-in-training are only allowed one major injury before we're kicked out, and that is just. Academia will grant us no quarter. Even if you aren't with the Lancers, wherever you are, I'm sure you would agree.
With understanding,
Masumi
Dear Yuzu,
When moral is down and we are in need of inspiration, we're shown the video Battle Royale: The Incredibly Brief Invasion of the Standard Dimension. At first, all the bravery and brutality completely captured my attention; but because there is apparently only one video to show, all that got old rather quickly. I am now able to pay more attention to detail. Today, I saw something of interest.
In the video, there's a young man riding around on a motorcycle of all things, taking on three Obelisk Force Troopers. We're told that he hails from the Synchro Dimension, where his peculiar dueling style is actually rather common. I finally took a good look at his face today, and noticed that he bares a striking resemblance to Sakaki Yuya! The similarities are almost frightening. They have the same facial structure, and despite my prior knowledge on this boy, for a moment I wondered if he truly was…
In any case, it got me to wondering. If Yuya does have an identical look-alike, then do you do, too? Is Serena yours? Is she also from the Synchro Dimension? But no, she uses Fusion—like Academia, like you and I. But she can't be from the Fusion Dimension; she's one of us, a Lancer!
I feel this is quite the mystery.
Sincerely,
Masumi
Dear Yuzu,
Today was a good day.
Yaiba has been released from the hospital, and I've passed the first part of my training! And better still: as a reward for proving myself, I've been awarded with my very own Pendulum cards!
This is big—monumental, even. I used to look down on Pendulum summoning because I immediately associated it with You Show Duel School, but I know better now. Pendulum summoning is the greatest weapon we have against Academia. It is the summoning method native to our home dimension. It is what we will champion when we take on Academia. I am no less than honored to carry these cards in my deck.
Tomorrow, my training will be modified to include dueling. First basic Pendulum summoning, and then Pendulum-Fusion. It shouldn't be too hard; I mean, even Yuya was able to figure it out!
(Kidding.)
With joy,
Masumi
Dear Yuzu,
Today was a bad day. A terrible, ugly, awful, horrifying day.
Each of us must endure one final test before we're given our Pendulum cards. I didn't tell you about mine, because it was relatively uneventful (if you care to know: it involved crawling through electric barbed wire while bombs shook the earth on either side of me). We must go through it alone, while our instructor and the other Lancers-in-training watch from some distance away via surveillance.
It was time for one girl's final trial. I recognized her from the Synchro course at LDS. In a trial not too dissimilar from the one where Yaiba sustained his serious injury, she was placed in a maze, with only two escapes. There was a bomb, and she had to escape the maze before it detonated.
But it was an indoor maze. She couldn't even use the position of the sun to help plan her moves. She went around in circles, taking every wrong turn imaginable. At one point, she'd only been one left turn away from making it out; I almost cried out in frustration when she took a right instead. We all watched in tense anticipation. Even our instructor, cold and demanding as she is, began to look concerned.
And then the bomb went off, just a few feet away from her. The massive fireball erupted so quickly she didn't even scream. It swallowed her whole, tearing through her as though she were nothing. She fell down to the ground with a soft, audible thud. After that, silence.
Our instructor pressed the emergency alert button, barking at both the fire response and medical teams that they were needed immediately. Otherwise, we made to continue watching. Through the fire, we could see her broken, charred body, skin roasted red and splitting open under the pressure. Her hair completely burned away from her scalp. Her eyes, wide and soulless. Her mouth open in her brief, final surprise.
I only just registered how Yaiba grabbed onto my upper arm, his grip so tight that it left the rest of my appendage in pins and needles. My hand clenched into a fist, my nails digging into my palm and breaking skin. Blood trickled sluggishly down my fingers. There was screaming, I know that. And crying. I did my best to hold still, even later on when we were gathered together again and told of the death of our fellow Lancer-in-training. As if it hadn't been obvious.
You must be seeing things like this all the time, everyday. I have no right to complain, but I must ask: how do you stand it? My first day of training, I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone died in the process. The possibility was one thing to grapple with, but the reality is an entirely separate demon.
I tried to cry earlier. I couldn't do it. That's probably a bad thing.
-Masumi
Dear Yuzu
I mastered Pendulum summoning within my first week. Pendulum-Fusion was conquered the next. I was made to stick it out the entire length of the course, but I could tell they were just making me go through the motions. I finish tomorrow, and then I will enter the final stage of my training. After that, a Lancer I will be.
Yaiba is currently learning Pendulum-Synchro. For his final test, he was made to go through an obstacle course designed to capture him, and he passed with flying colors. Words can't describe how proud I am of him. His death is becoming harder and harder for me to imagine.
Several more trainees have died since the first incident. Four by drowning, two by asphyxiation, one by poisoning, and five more by fire. I feel less and less with each fallen comrade, and that's probably a bad thing.
I don't sleep anymore. My dreams have all withered away. I stare up at the sky all night long, every scream I've ever had lying dead in my throat, every tear evaporated into nothing. My thoughts can start off anywhere, but they always return to you. Where are you now? I need do nothing more than look up at a propaganda poster to see Serena's face, but I don't want her. I want you. I would do anything to hear the pretty song that is your voice. I used to think that as long as I had my memories, the people I lost would always be with me, just in a different way. But that just isn't true. Nothing beats the real thing.
I will march on. I will graduate. I will become a Lancer. I will see you again.
Always,
Masumi
Yuzu,
I have just learned what my final training consists of. It lasts all of a day, plus recovery time. They're going to slice my head open.
By direct orders of the chairwoman, I have once again been locked in solitary confinement—not to punish me, per say, but to prevent the other trainees from learning this dangerous piece of information. She's smart. I would have told Yaiba first chance I got.
No one is answering my questions. I still don't know to what this surgery is for, or what it will entail. I don't know if they'll be putting something into me or taking something out. But my brain is still my brain—a very essential part of who I am. They are seeking to alter my very being.
Did you know about this? Of course not, you aren't a Lancer. No one knows where you are, and if no one knows that, it's impossible to know what you know.
Hokuto tells me not to worry, but I know the images I see of him aren't real. Hokuto isn't here with me—Hokuto is nowhere. All of my fallen comrades are also nowhere. I suspect there is nothing beyond this broken world.
Are you nowhere, too? I don't know what I'd do if I ever saw you in a card. By this time tomorrow, the light will have gone out of my world forever. I will never be the same. Just know that I love you, Hiragi Yuzu. Whether you're in this dimension, another dimension, or nowhere, I love you in all your forms. I only wish we had more time.
Love,
Masumi
To Yuzu:
I don't think Masumi would've been okay with me reading these, but I did anyway. And I have to make sure that you know her feelings.
Word is all you Lancers are coming back tomorrow. We heard time and time again that you weren't with them, and now, bam! You are! Weird, but what isn't these days?
I just finished up my studies in Pendulum-Synchro, but I doubt they would lock me up right when you guys are getting back. Even if they do, I'll make sure these get to you. I'll find a way. No matter what, I won't let Masumi's feelings to die with her. She's still alive as far as I know, but… if she was right about what the surgery would do to her, then she is dead in a way. They took her off someplace right after and I haven't seen her since, so I don't know for sure. In any case, this is the least I can do for her.
So you do with these what you will. Just honor her wishes. She wanted you alive more than anything else in the world, so you do that. And remember how lucky you are. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I went to go fight a bunch of weaklings at some second-rate duel school with my friends Masumi and Hokuto. And on our way there, Masumi told us that falling in love was a foolish thing to do, and that she would never do it herself. Then she met you, and everything changed. You changed her heart. You were the light at the end of her tunnel.
Masumi joined the Lancers as a way to get closer to you. She wrote these letters thinking that the two of you had a future. Maybe you still do. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.
Either way, it's all up to you now. Make sure all of this means something.
Regards,
Yaiba