Upon opening his eyes, the first thing he had thought was "I shouldn't be alive."
The second thing he thought was "my goddamn shoulder stings like hell."
He pulled himself out of the thorny bush he appeared to have fallen into—what the actual hell, what kind of landscaper put this into a park. Because that's exactly where he was: the central park of Heartland City. A place he himself had never expected to see, less because he had died and more because, well, he had been about ninety-nine percent certain the city had gotten fused with the Barian World and was slowly being reduced to nothingness. Still, everything seemed the same. Same obnoxious bright colors and annoyingly sleek skyscrapers, same ridiculous humans with their ridiculous smiles playing Duel Monsters like it was just some kind of game.
Vector rubbed his shoulder, swearing slightly under his breath. What exactly had happened? What was he doing here, and how was he still alive? He could barely remember anything; it was a blur of red and pain and the feeling of his soul being rent to shreds inside the depths of Don Thousand's body.
It was the flashing image of a boy with softened eyes smiling at him and clinging to his wrist, refusing to let him go, whispering, "yes, Vector. Let's go together."
Yuma.
Vector's eyes flicked upwards. He appeared to be the only one who had been dropped off in the park. He flexed his fingers. There was none of the Barian strength there that he was used to, and he could already feel the unfamiliar ache of hunger growling in his chest. So. He was human. Of course Astral would do a dumb, good-guy thing like that. He had used the Numeron Code to restore the Barian Emperors to human forms. It was just the sort of goody-two-shoes thing the star-bastard would do.
Despite his lack of Barian blood in his veins now, he could still sense a vague connection to the other six Emperors in the back of his head. They were elsewhere, far away—perhaps Astral had dropped him off farther away for a reason. He wasn't complaining. He didn't feel like facing anyone right now. They'd expect him to be all apologetic and willing to start over, whimpering stupid human things like "let's try again" and "let's be friends this time." Fuck that. As if. No amount of star-bastards bringing him back from the dead was going to make him want to be all friendly with any of them. He didn't owe them shit.
He stood up instead, brushing leaves from his dark leather jacket and smoothing orange locks out of his face. He could sense his fellow Barian Emperors somewhere to his back, towards the school. He bet they were all enrolled there now like the freaking goody-two-shoes they all were. That was the last place he was going to end up. Nah. Maybe he'd go back towards Persia again. Right, it wasn't Persia anymore, was it? Iran or Iraq or some shit like that. Humans were idiots, always having to rename everything.
I am a human now, his treacherous brain whispered.
No. I'm never going to be one of them ever again.
He flicked dust off his collar with a bit more vicious force than necessary. Damn Astral. Damn him for bringing him back. Why the hell had he done something like that? Astral didn't give a shit about him. The other Barian Emperors, maybe he could forgive. Not Vector. Not after what he had done to drive wedges between him and Yuma and enjoyed it—
Yuma.
A crimson-eyed boy smiling at him, looking so calm, so gentle in that moment. Just smiling.
"Yes, Vector," he whispered. "Let's go together."
Vector hesitated. He glanced back towards the direction of Heartland's school. His hands curled into fists inside his pockets.
"Let's go together."
It felt like something inside him started to deflate. His head sagged slightly. He closed his eyes for a moment—if he hadn't been certain that no one was looking, he might have stabbed himself for showing so much weakness.
"You idiot," he muttered. "You stupid, fucking idiot, Yuma Tsukumo."
He half opened his eyes again, staring at the ground.
Bet you didn't want to bring me back, did you, Astral? He thought. But you did. You did because...
He clenched his jaw and almost growled.
You brought me back because of him.
For a moment, he just stood there, glaring at the ground.
And then, abruptly, he turned on his heel and marched towards Heartland school.