"So, about whatshisface—" Ryouga only really remembers cyan wings and a dragon, but it's an unpleasant memory and it's a miracle the sphere field broke before anyone died.

"Alcor," Astral says. "Their leader, I presume."

"If he's their leader, he's pretty irresponsible." Rei crosses his arms behind his head. "He didn't even try to help that Durbe guy."

Ryouga shrugs. "He did protect Alaraph though."

"The kid with the blue hair? Maybe Alcor has a heart for kids."

They're on the way back home from school right now, just the three of them as usual. They've been coming to school more often now that the Barians started trying to assimilate their entire school once, and having Yuuma around made it a bit more eventful.

"Shark! Shingetsu!"

Speak of the devil.

Ryouga turns around to see Yuuma running their way.

Astral immediately returns to the key, as he doesn't quite like Yuuma.

"Oh, Yuuma-kun. Did you have detention again?" Rei laughs.

"If he did, it's likely your fault, asshole—" Ryouga begins, but Yuuma shakes his head.

"I just forgot my bag in school. Hey, Shark, wanna duel today?"

Ryouga wants to decline because he has to investigate the Barian matters, but Rei speaks up before he can.

"Right, Shark-kun, you should hang out with Yuuma." Rei has that shit-eating smirk again and Ryouga almost wishes to be back on opposing sides again; with Rei as a Numbers Hunter and him as the Astral emissary's host.

"Don't call me that, Rei." Ryouga and Rei glare at each other.

However, Ryouga can't he can't keep being stoic when Yuuma makes those hopeful eyes and there's really no reason to not duel. "—Fine. Come over to my place then."

"Thank you, Shark!"

"While you're dueling, I'll go help Rio-chan with her homework~" Rei winks; Yuuma doesn't get it, but Ryouga does— Rei and Rio gonna look for Numbers and Barians tonight.

"Shark sis needs help with homework?" Yuuma looks surprised. "She doesn't seem like the type who needs it."

Neither Rei nor Ryouga know what to reply to that, so they remain silent and listen to Yuuma talk about school and how hard it is, until they stop at a crossing.

"Alright, I'll be going the other way! See 'ya, Shark-kun, Yuuma-kun~" Rei runs off, but looks back to see Ryouga holding up his middle finger, and promptly returns the gesture.

Yuuma is, nicely put, weird.

One day Yuuma just transferred to Ryouga's school, in the middle of the year, shortly after they'd broken Rei's father out of the control of the Barians.

Of course, initially, Ryouga didn't wanna befriend Yuuma, but it's hard to keep someone like him at a distance, and Ryouga can use the positivity in his life.

He can't help but to notice the anomalies though.

Yuuma always seems to be missing when Barians attack, with an almost definite chance of him showing up right after the danger is over.

It's strange, but he doesn't ever do anything dangerous, and so Ryouga has taken to believing that Yuuma just has a lot of luck.

"Hey, Shark?"

"Yeah?"

"Is something bothering you?"

"Me? No, it's nothing."

"I see! That's— That's good!"

Yuuma must've caught the lie, because he laughs nervously and rubs his neck and walks a bit faster.

A few minutes later, he speaks up again. "Shark?"

Ryouga sighs. "What is it?"

"I'm glad we became friends—"

An energy ball rapidly comes flying their way, and they barely dodge it.

Not now.

Ryouga curses and gets out his duel disk, anticipating the Barian's arrival.

It doesn't take long.

In a pink energy blast, a man with blonde hair and blue eyes lands on the ground.

In a way, Ryouga feels reminded of Alcor, but slightly less intimidated.

"Kamishiro Ryouga," the man says. "My name is Mizael. I challenge you to a duel with the Numbers at stake." He holds out one of those Barian Sphere Cubes that Gilag also had.

"Alright, I'll take you o—" Ryouga is cut off mid-word by Yuuma pulling him by the arm and starting to run.

"Yuuma?!"

"You're not fighting that guy!"

Yuuma is fast, and also a lot stronger than Ryouga as it turns out, because Ryouga can't actually get out of his grip and has to run along.

(Stopping is not an option now, because Mizael is hurling energy balls at them.)

"Damn it!" Yuuma pulls Shark left and right, not even bothering to let Shark dodge by himself.

Yuuma's sense of direction remains poor though, and they end up running into a dead end.

"...What a disgrace. You should accept a challenge head-on!" Mizael scowls, readying his duel disk.

"That's what I had planned to from the start."

That's what Ryouga says, but suddenly he feels the ground beneath him disappear and he falls down, still holding Yuuma's hand and loudly screaming.

When Ryouga opens his eyes again, he's leaning against a window.

"What just—" Ryouga looks outside and recognizes this place as the top floor of Heartland tower. "For how long was I—"

"Just a few minutes." A few meters away from him, Yuuma smiles nervously. "Mizael shouldn't be able to find us that easily now."

Ryouga tries to process that information, but a glance at Yuuma's neck gives him a much more important question. "Yuuma, what is-"

"Sorry." Yuuma sighs. "I didn't think I'd have to..." He glances down at the Barian emblem around his neck, sighs again. "Uhm. We're still friends, right?"

Ryouga stares at him blankly. "You're a Barian."

"Yeah."

Ryouga opens his mouth, closes it again, breathes in and out a few times to calm himself down because Barians are the enemy and they hurt Rio but also Yuuma would not hurt a single person and he literally just saved my life, so there has to be an explanation. "...Then why would you save me from other Barians?"

"Isn't that obvious? We're friends!" Yuuma grins, still looking incredibly nervous, but as sincere as usual.

That's true.

Ryouga rubs his temples in hopes to ease his beginning headache. He has questions, but Yuuma looks like he might burst into tears any minute, so that will have to wait. "You're right."

Yuuma's smile becomes bigger in response to that, and he pulls out the Emperor's key. "I kept that with me while we were talking so Astral doesn't listen. Sorry about that." He hands it back to Ryouga.

Ryouga raises an eyebrow. "You're just giving it back?"

"I have no intention of harming anybody."

"Tch. That's a first, for a Barian."

"Sorry."

You shouldn't be the one apologizing. Ryouga can't stand the pained expression on Yuuma's face, so he ruffles his hair in an attempt to show he isn't mad. "Either way, thank you."

"Eh? Why?" Yuuma tilts his head.

"Because you helped me."

"—Shark!" Yuuma hugs Ryouga enthusiastically, causing both of them to fall over.

They stay like that for a moment, and Ryouga thinks he can hear Yuuma sobbing, silently, so he lets him be for a bit.

He hasn't had it easy, huh?

It takes a few minutes, but then Yuuma wipes his eyes on Shark's shirt. "Thanks."

"Mh. So... What's your real name?" Ryouga moves away from below Yuuma.

"Eh?"

"Your Barian name."

"—Oh. It's Polaris. B—But keep calling me Yuuma! I like that better." Yuuma crosses his arms behind his neck. "Ugh, this is bad. The others will be angry when they find out."

So he really is just Yuuma. A smile makes its way across Ryouga's face. "That Alcor guy sure is an annoying boss to have, huh?"

"Boss?"

"Isn't he the leader of the Barians?"

"Oh, no, that would be me."

"What."