A/N: Written for the 100 Prompts, 100 MCs challenge at the GX Writing Academy, prompt #100 – coronary thrombosis.

Last Duel of No Regrets
Chapter 1

Ryou spread his deck over the blanket that covered his legs. Anything more strenuous, and the monitors attached to him would scream and alert a nurse. Anything else, and his mind would drift: drift to those other times he'd felt the weak heart in his chest cease its struggling beats.

He wondered if he was really dying this time. He wouldn't be too disappointed if he was. He was old – not nearly so old as to sprout grey hairs or become an uncle (since he'd never wished to marry himself) or to need to retire from the pro circuit of evolving duellists and duels if it wasn't for his health.

But he'd accomplished a lot. When he'd thought he was dead he was happy then with one final duel and he was happy now. He'd come back from that no-man's land and watched his brother and his deck grow. He'd built a new one for himself, from the ground up, that could match that new sight, and new goal. To continue growing – that was something he'd stopped doing back then, thinking he'd hit the wall of perfection.

It wasn't only Judai who could transcend perfection. Everyone could.

The cards on his lap now, they were proof of that. Recovering from his operation and his reputation in the professional duelling world, he came back as a new person with a new deck and struggled from the bottom of the circuit. He wanted more than to win, then. He wanted to prove this new thing he'd discovered: this evolving deck, this evolving duel, that had been born from all his time at the Academia.

And he did that, and they began the new duelling circuit. Evolving duels.

But now his heart was catching up to him again. After the evolving duels had kicked off with Shou in the lead – one of the bright stars of the old duelling world – and Ryou, the "Kaiser to kouhei" duellist who had crawled back into the ranks with his new deck and strength. He didn't mind pulling back now. Those extra years he'd gotten – he'd duelled hard in them.

His only regret now was that he hadn't been able to have the rematch he'd waited eight years for.

'Hey,' he said. 'Do you think he'll show up?'

His cards didn't answer. He wasn't one of those people who could see spirits. And he didn't need to be. He was his own sort of duellist, who grew with a different skill set and knowledge bank. Those things which were collected in the deck in front of him, and in his heart.

'Ni-san, you're not over-exerting yourself, are you?'

Ryou looked at his brother, sliding the door open so he could enter the room.

'I'm just looking at my deck.' Ryou smiled. 'Unless you'd like to play with me a little?'

'I'm sorry, Ni-san.' But Shou was smiling, so Ryou surmised that meant something better than a quick duel with his little brother. 'You have guests.'

'Oh?' He craned his neck a little – but it turned out he didn't need to, because Fubuki poked his head around the door.

'Yo,' he said, waving a hand. 'You're a sight for sore eyes, aren't you.'

'Use the antiseptic,' Shou cautioned, pointing at a squirt bottle at the end of the bed. Fubuki laughed and said mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "mother hen", but he obeyed, squirting a little of the pink liquid onto his palms and rubbing them together. Asuka followed her brother.

'Fubuki, Asuka.' Ryou nodded to them. 'Graduation finished?'

Asuka nodded. 'I thought I'd come home for a bit before heading out to Australia.'

'Australia?' Ryou raised an eyebrow at that. 'South Academy?'

Asuka nodded again. 'Their school year starts in January, but Jim said there were a few things he wanted to show me before that, so I was thinking of leaving around October. Australia has some good tourist sights, so I should be able to squeeze in a little country-wide tour as well.'

'I get three months with my little sister at least.' Fubuki draped a hand over Asuka's shoulder, only to be swatted away. 'Cold, imouto. Cold.'

'Sure, Ni-san.' Asuka rolled her eyes, before turning to Ryou. 'Were you arranging your deck?'

'No,' Ryou said truthfully. 'Just looking at my cards.'

'He's been itching for a duel,' Shou spoke up. 'With Aniki.'

The Tenjoin siblings looked at each other. Fubuki whistled. 'That's a tall order,' he said. 'I haven't heard from him in…how long has it been?' He counted off his fingers. 'More than a year at least.'

'I got a text from him during graduation,' Asuka added. 'Though when I tried to reply back, it said the number was disconnected.'

'I've had the same problem,' Shou said. 'But I think Aniki will show up on his own. He has a way of doing that.'

'Like the wind?' Fubuki laughed. 'Yes, he does do that. Remember my first pro duel?'

'It could have been somebody else's tail hair.' But they liked to think it was Judai anyway. But whoever it had been hadn't stuck around long enough to be seen more closely. Just long enough to witness the end of the duel, stand with the others applauding Fubuki as the winner, and then vanish into the crowd.

'And when the evolving circuit launched.' Ryou smiled. That had been the last time he'd seen Judai face to face actually. There with most of their friends from the Academia and the pro circuit, to wish their new circuit well. But they'd been able to contact him then. It had been more than a year since calls and text messages no longer went through. That probably meant he was somewhere without reception. In the far reaches of this world…or in another one altogether.

They slipped into a calm swirl of past memories: those precious memories they'd built at the Academia together, and beyond. Three years had passed since. Asuka had graduated with her bachelor's degree and was moving on: forever learning, forever sharing her knowledge as was her dream. Fubuki had taken his unique duelling style to the professional stage – and it was beginning to spread. Duelling performers were starting to spring up in the youth leagues and at the Academias scattered around the world, following the image Fubuki had thrown up to the world. And Shou and Ryou had managed to kick off their newfound dream as well before Ryou's body had failed him again.

But he still had a smile on his face and he could laugh. Those were the important things, surrounded by family and friends and his cards. And Asuka and Fubuki – and even Shou, though Shou had been by his side for so long Ryou wondered if he'd have missed the look if it had slowly crawled in…

'Ni-san?'

No, not that he could see. Just worry – and how could someone step in to a hospital room, even a private well-furnished and relatively colourful one like his – without a look of worry on their faces. Or…he supposed there were people in the world who could walk into hospital rooms with completely stoic expressions on their faces and in their eyes. Maybe more experienced doctors and nurses. Maybe not. Maybe that wasn't something that came from experience.

'Sorry,' he apologised, smiling at Shou. 'I was just thinking.'

Fubuki looked as though he was about to ask what, but Asuka spoke before him. 'Edo's having a duel tonight. Is your television covering the channel?'

Ryou shrugged and gestured at the laminated piece of paper near the remote: the one that told which channels were available. Asuka grabbed it and skimmed over it, then shook her head. 'It's not on here.'

Ryou supposed he shouldn't have been too surprised. Major league matches were covered on channels that any working television could access, but others were available only on specific channels. He'd heard about Edo's upcoming match only because Edo himself had forwarded the details to him. Probably because he didn't want his friend missing it.

But Shou could bring his laptop and that little data stick and they could watch it together. Except Asuka volunteered her laptop and data-stick – which she had for research purposes, she said, as a bit of side-line thing while gaining her degree, and Ryou shrugged and agreed. The four of them watching would be nice. They'd used to do that before Duel Academia. When Shou was just a little dreamer who could barely hold a card and Asuka was a loud and determined girl climbing over her brother's lap every second to see the screen. Looking at her now, one wouldn't have guessed it – or maybe they would.

She's still a strong, independent woman, Ryou thought.

Asuka caught the stare and raised an eyebrow. 'Just thinking of back when we were kids,' Ryou smiled. 'When Jonouchi and Mai and Kaiba used to duel on the pro stage and we'd watch them.'

Asuka blushed a little. Fubuki laughed. 'We'll need popcorn too.'