Series: Paladin's Quest||Title: Rebirth of Kaiser
Characters: Ryou, Juudai, Shou, Yuusuke||Ship: N/A
Chapter: 1/30||Words: 2,085
Genre: Drama, Friendship||Rated: PG-13
Challenges: Diversity Writing Challenge: YGO GX: canon: K5, 20+ chapters; Slots: 2,000-67,000, 1st person past tense, rated T, reincarnation, gen-fic; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #44, fade; Epic Big Bang
Notes: This begins roughly seven years post-canon. It does involve character death but reincarnation/rebirth as well.
Summary: It's happened at last. His life couldn't go on forever. But an ending in one world brings a new beginning in another. And just because Ryou has changed doesn't erase the events of the past, or people furious at those events.

Shou sat, hands in his lap, staring at the door. He tried not to, but he did anyway. He'd sat in rooms like this before, worried like this before, but never to this degree. Never with the true, deep down fear that his brother wouldn't come out of this. That something would happen that shouldn't.

He closed his eyes, trying to think about something else. He wasn't particular on what. He just wanted to think about anything that wasn't the doctors on the other side of the door doing their best to save his brother's life.

A hand brushed against his shoulder and he looked up to see a face he hadn't seen in well over six months. Without a bit of hesitation, he threw himself into Juudai's arms, shaking all over.

It was Juudai. He could do that with him.

"Aniki! Aniki!" Further words just stuck in his throat. He trembled and sat back down, Juudai beside him now. He wanted to believe everything would be all right now. Aniki was here and…

He still couldn't make everything come out all right. He wasn't that good. He wasn't flawless. He could make mistakes.

Shou had to remind himself of that. It wasn't easy. He'd spent long enough believing that Juudai really could do anything that he wanted to, and he'd had a hard enough time realizing that wasn't true.

But that didn't change the fact that Juudai being there eased a lot of the tension he'd been living with since he'd arrived here.

"So what happened?" Juudai asked, voice quiet and soft. Shou swallowed a little. He hadn't actually told anyone since this started. There hadn't been anyone around to tell, and he'd been too worried to put his fingers to keys and send an e-mail.

Which did make him wonder just how Juudai found out he was there in the first place. But here he was, and that was all that mattered for the moment.

He focused. "Everything was fine. He took his medicine every day. He didn't push himself too much, even with our Pro League." He couldn't help but be proud of how far their League had come in the seven years since graduation. "Then...he just said that he hurt a lot. That he didn't feel good."

Shou swallowed, heart pounding as he remembered seeing how pale Ryou looked when he spoke. "I wasn't sure what to do. So I brought him here. He … he passed out almost as soon as we got here."

Shou's hands pressed even tighter together. "They've had him in there for a long time now. I'm not even sure what's really wrong." It had probably been his heart. His brother had been doing so well but things happened and there wasn't anything else he could think of.

He swallowed. He didn't want to look at the time. He didn't want to know how long it had been. No matter how long it had been, it couldn't be good at all. If he didn't know, then it would be… all right, wouldn't it? Sure. That was it.

Sometimes nurses came out from there, and once a doctor. She hadn't talked to him, though, and he wasn't sure if she even had anything to do with his brother. But seeing them worried him even when they said nothing at all.

He heard noises from the other side, but never anything that he could make sense out of. The words he could understand, but what they meant was all in medical jargon. None of it said what he wanted it to say: that his brother was fine and would recover soon.

Shou glanced up once to see Juudai working on something, fingers dancing over keys. It took another moment to grasp it: he was sending out messages. Letting people know what was going on.

Oh. Better than he could do right now. He tucked his head back down, too scared to sleep, too scared to stay awake. He sort of wanted to yawn, but if he did, he'd fall asleep. He was almost sure of it.

"Kenzan and Manjoume-kun are on the way," Juudai said. "Asuka, too. I haven't heard back from anyone else yet."

Shou nodded. He couldn't decide what else to do. Words just didn't want to come right now.

A ringing sound. Shou looked up, mostly out of habit. That usually meant that someone was coming out of there.

A doctor emerged. She looked every bit as exhausted as he felt. She looked around the room, attention falling on him.

"Marufuji Shou? Here for your brother?"

Shou's heart clenched. He nodded. This would be it. This would clear up everything.

"I'm terribly sorry. We did everything that we could." Her voice was quiet and weary, head bent. "You have my deepest sympathies."

Shou's heart froze altogether. No. No. He couldn't have heard that. It couldn't be what he thought she said. After all this time, all that they'd done together, all that they'd fought for together, how could that have happened?

He jerked his head around to where Juudai sat, hardly noticing the hot tears streaking down his cheeks. "Aniki..." He knew what he wanted to ask. What he wanted to demand. But it couldn't be. He could not forget that Juudai might be powerful, but he wasn't a god.

Juudai rose up. "Can we… see him?"

The doctor's lips turned down a bit. "It's not usual, but… I think it might be all right. Just this once."

Under other circumstances, Shou might have wondered if Juudai did something to influence her. Right now, he didn't actually care. He stumbled along in her wake, guided through quiet empty corridors. It was very late at night and only the occasional doctor or nurse turned up.

Shou could barely think as they entered a room. There, a white sheet pulled up over him, was…

Shou didn't even think at all. "Nii-san..."

Juudai stared at what he saw, at what – who had been the Kaiser. He let Shou go first, turning his own thoughts inward. He'd never considered doing anything like this before. One thing he'd learned very fast was that there were certain lines that he couldn't cross.

But this was Shou and this was the Kaiser and if he couldn't do something for the people that he cared about, then what could he do?

Yubel.

We can't bring him back. The ties to his body are already severed.

He'd expected that. But there had to be something else that he could do.

Does he have a ghost? Like Daitokuji-sensei? That was the only thing he could think of right now. His old teacher still hadn't moved on, but he'd stopped by Duel Academia to leave Pharaoh with Principal Samejima before coming here. He was pretty sure hospitals didn't want cats around.

Yubel didn't answer at once. He had the sensation that they were searching, even if he couldn't see them.

Yes. Most people do, before they leave. But I can't say how long he will remain.

Juudai nodded. If I looked with your eyes, could I see him?

Yes. But hurry.

Juudai concentrated, feeling Yubel's energy move through him. They were together at all times, but only when they both put in this effort could he see things the way that Yubel did.

Ryou wasn't the only spirit there. Cyber End Dragon hovered behind Shou, dividing its attention between the Marufujis. Ryou stared up at it, awe written over his features, before he turned toward Juudai, face assuming his usual calm expression.

"Juudai." He said nothing more, a greeting and a farewell in one.

Juudai inched forward. "Do you really want to go that much?"

Ryou tilted his head. "I don't think I'm being given an option." His gaze flicked back toward Shou. "But I don't think I would if I could stay."

Juudai held back a bit of a grin. He'd hoped for something like that, even if he didn't know how to do it.

"There might be a way. I mean, I don't know for sure, but…"

Yubel stood next to him without warning. "There is a path that isn't mortal rebirth or the afterlife. It isn't one that everyone walks and some are called to it without warning. Have you noticed that there are some Duel Spirits who bear too much of a resemblance to humans?"

Both Ryou and Juudai nodded. Yubel folded their arms over their chest as they spoke.

"It isn't unknown for a human to be reborn as a Duel Spirit. Or a Duel Spirit to be reborn as a human. That is a path available: with the help of the Gentle Darkness."

Juudai jerked his head up. "You're serious?" He'd sort of had an idea that he could do something, but he'd more or less thought of it as being healing or something. Not like this.

"When am I not, Juudai?" Yubel asked, a small smile on their lips. Then they turned back to Ryou. "It is a path taken by those with the strongest of wills only. And like those who experience mortal rebirth, you will not remember your first life." Yubel considered for a few seconds. "Though I cannot say that the memories won't ever return. It is possible. But it would require much effort and isn't always something to strive for. There are times when it's better to forget the past and move onward."

Juudai couldn't help a snort there. "Really?" To hear Yubel of all beings saying that…

"There are circumstnaces where that isn't an option," Yubel said, eyes glittering for a few seconds. "But I spoke of humans, not us."

Juudai waved one hand before he looked back to the Kaiser. "I guess that's an option, then. Is that what you'd like?"

Ryou considered in silence, his gaze going between Juudai, Yubel, Shou, and Cyber End Dragon. He raised one hand to rest on one of Cyber End's muzzles.

"I would be a card spirit?"

"Yes. Only those who have the gift to see them would see you in this world. You might not even be created as a card here for a great deal of time to come." Yubel answered. "But you could also live in one of the spirit worlds. Anyone living there could see you." Yubel raised a hand, cutting off whatever questions were next. "We don't know what kind of a card you would be, either."

"We could get President Pegasus to make a card, eventually. Or Hayato, Hayato could do it!" Juudai declared, trying and not perfectly succeeding in keeping his voice down. Shou didn't seem to notice, though. His heart and mind were too busy mourning.

"Make your choice, Hell Kaiser Marufuji Ryou," Yubel said, "because the time you have to make it runs very thin indeed."

Ryou did not move his hand from Cyber End's muzzle. He breathed, if a ghost could be said to breathe at all, for a moment.

"I'll do it," he said. Juudai thought he'd made the decision at the best time. He looked a little transparent, even for a ghost.

Yubel extended one hand and in it was a card, blank of title and without image. "Then touch this. We'll carry you there and you'll wake up… eventually."

"Eventually?"

"It takes time to adjust to a change like this. It could take a very long time." Yubel pointed out. Ryou nodded before he reached his other hand out and rested it on the card.

There wasn't a flash or anything. One moment he stood there, then he wasn't. There wasn't anything to see on the card even then, but Juudai could feel his presence in the card. Yubel handed it to him.

"What world do you want to take him to?" They asked. Juudai knew without even having to think about it: the world that he had troubled so much when he'd hurt with all of his heart.

The world where Hell Kaiser was still hailed as the hero who'd defeated Haou and brought his evil down. In all the years since, no one had ever told the people there otherwise. It would be a good place for Ryou to start a new life.

He would have to bring Shou there, eventually. When he wasn't in such pain from the passing of his brother. Not that he'd tell Shou that Ryou wasn't technically gone…

Shou, or anyone else. They could all find out later, when Ryou remembered them.

If Ryou remembered them.

To Be Continued

Notes: This one will be updated once a week for as long as I can. I hope you enjoy it!