Cat: So, hey guys! This is the beginning of my mini collection of one shots- In the Minds of Many!

Rena: So, long story short, we will write these little shots when we are waiting for Arc V episodes to load while we write our story In the Mind of Yuzu.

Cat: Here where i live, i have the WORST wifi ever. So, loading an episode can take hours of time! Which is a pain when you write Fanfics based on the episodes that take ages to load.

Rena: So, these stories are in different people's POV for every chapter and will each be on something different.

Cat: They will not be in episode order! They will be in the order i choose it to be in! So, no order at all!

Disclaimer: We write these without watching the episodes at the same time. Totally from our heads. Please give us artistic liscence!

Cat: Please follow, favourite and review, if you have the time! It means so much!

In the Minds of Many

Sakaki Yoko

It's coming up to five years now. It doesn't seem like that at all, however. Five years, huh? Does it seem longer or shorter than that? I'm still not sure. I mean, very little but yet, a lot, has happened in that space of time. Does it seem that nothing has changed because every day I am stuck in the house; cooking and cleaning, taking the animals out for walks every now and then? Or does it seem that everything has changed, due to the fact my son has grown so much?

Five years ago, my husband vanished. Right before the Duelling finals. I remember it well. So well, it could have been yesterday and, in a way, it feels like it was. I was sitting in the VIP box, reserved for families of duellists and important figures of the city. I had a small discussion with the mayor before the match had begun and made small talk to other government officials. In a way, I felt like it was expected of me, being the wife of the city's current duelling star. But at the same time, I wished I could have a seat down with the public and just be another spectator. I hated how stuck-up they all were but I endured.

I sat as I always did, not really paying attention to anything, off in my own world. The duel had been scheduled to begin five minutes before but no-one seemed bothered that it was running slightly late. It happened all the time.

I began tapping my foot. Fifteen minutes had past and I was beginning to wonder if there was something faulty with the arena programming. It must have broken down, or something. But wouldn't they have announced it?

Half an hour later, the crowd were beginning to get restless. Something was wrong. I shifted in my seat, glancing around at all the other people in the glass viewing box, as they all muttered to themselves. Then, the crowd started cheering wildly and I turned back to the arena, sighing. Everything was going to be-

Wait. Where was Yushou? His opponent was there on the field; a huge man with a grim look, standing, glaring around as if looking for him. Was he hiding? Or doing the fashionable late entry? Perhaps it had something to do with his entertainment duelling!? A new trick! Maybe?

After another ten minutes, the door to the VIP room opened. We all glanced up to see a female security guard bow awkwardly and scramble over. I blinked when she bent down beside me, her eyes hidden by her green cap, which was part of her security uniform.

"Sakaki-san?" she whispered, to which I nodded. "We are having trouble locating your husband. We were wondering if you had seen him or if you know where he is?"

I could feel the gazes of hundreds of pairs of eyes of all the people in the box burying into my back as I shook my head and informed the girl that I hadn't seen my husband before he left to prepare for the duel. She bowed again and shuffled out. I stared down at the arena, my husband's opponent demanding where he was, asking if he was 'scared' and calling him a 'coward'.

I stood up, furious. This newbie had no right to call my husband a coward just because he hadn't appeared. But that didn't stop the panic setting in as I tried to keep calm and forced myself to walk to the door as if nothing was wrong and not to sprint to the Duellist Prep Room. Where was he? This wasn't like him. I yanked the door open to see hundreds of staff members and security charging up and down the corridors, entering rooms, frantically shouting into walkie-talkies.

I squeezed through the crowd and, finally feeling like the prying eyes of the public were off me, I charged down the stairs, dropping deeper and deeper until I reached the ground floor, dashing along the cold corridors to his dressing room. I knew the door well. It was the one he was always in, ever since that first match so many years before. I had just been there just hours before, wishing him luck.

I tore the door open, gasping, staring around. No-one was sitting at the dresser. Nobody on the sofa. The bathroom door was open, revealing that that room was also deserted. I continued choking the door handle, using it as a support as I distantly felt my knees sink lower and lower until they crashed into the freezing metal floor.

Thinking back, even though all I knew was that he wasn't in the arena and wasn't in the dressing room, I knew, I felt that he was gone. Vanished.

I tugged at the pockets of my jeans, trying to retrieve my phone from my tight pockets which proved really challenging as I fumbled with my shaking hands. Perhaps he would pick up and explain where he was? Staring down at the machine, I realised that I had no reception. I made my way up the stairs and back up to the stands, where, slowly, people were beginning to filter out. However, the stadium was more or less full.

Then, I realised that my son was missing too. I hadn't seen him since I had left him with his friend Yuzu and her father, so he could chat with them before the start and not sit with 'boring adults', as Yuya called them (apparently Yuzu's father was an 'interesting adult' or, more likely, Yuya thought of him as a child too). I felt cold, stabbing dread drench me from head to toe as I realised that I had to make sure he hadn't vanished too. He was our only child. I couldn't lose him.

I scanned the crowd of thousands of sitting people, looking for the tail-tail signs of red and green hair and a pair of little goggles. Or, perhaps a little bit of pink and purple or a taller ginger in a red and orange jump suit. I stared over countless heads, my eyes gluing to every sliver of red or green but all resulting in the same result- I couldn't see Yuya.

"My dad will come! Just you see! While we wait, duel me!" a little voice could be heard screaming over the crowd. Sniggers and laughs could be heard from all around. I glanced over to see a small boy clambering over the safety bars. Like lightening, I was over in a flash and grabbing my son around his waist.

"Mum! What're you doing!? Stop!" He wailed, scrambling to get out of my hold, tears splashing everywhere.

"Yuya, shhhhhhhhh," I whispered, patting his head and clutching him close to my chest, comforting him but also hiding him from the stares of others. "It's ok. Everything is going to be ok."

"Attention all spectators, attention all spectators. After consultation from LDS officials and after the hour time limit, opponent Sakaki Yusho has been disqualified from the tournament. Strong Ishijima has won by default. I repeat, Strong Ishijima has won by…"

I didn't need to hear the rest of the announcement and we were finally out of earshot as I left the stadium, son in my arms and hailed a taxi to take us home.

Cat: You may have noticed, the chapters will be quite short and random.

Rena: This fanfic will not have regular updates! I will only upload when i have finished a story while waiting for episodes to load!

Cat: Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Here's for a new story! Next chapter will hopefully be in... Yuto's POV? :/

Any specific character and/or scene from the series you would like a chapter on? Please review or PM

(or keep it to yourself and never see it done)

Oh, and if i don't manage to say it anywhere else before, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

...2015... Jeez...