Chapter 1: Nightmare.

Aichi was suddenly awoken in the middle of the night.

'Where am I?'

He looked around. The place was pitch black and there was nothing, as if he was in darkness.

'The whole place is pitch black…'

There was no sound. It was quiet and cold, it sent chills down his spine.

'W-what am I going to do...'

He looked around again and tried to find a way out of this place.

A dark, menacing voice suddenly chuckled. "There's no escape…Sendou Aichi."

"W-who are you? W-what do you want from m-me?" Aichi stood his ground, getting ready for whatever that can happen.

"I'm the darkness that resides inside you."

"The darkness…that resides…inside…me…?"

"That's right."

"What are you trying to do?" Aichi narrowed his eyes. Glaring at nothing.

"I'm merely here to guide you, there's no need to fear."

The voice paused a while before continuing.

"You wish to be stronger, right? To defeat Suzugamori Ren."

"I…"

"You know this yourself, you hate him."

The voice paused again before continuing. While paused, some pure black coloured smoke roamed around Aichi.

"He doesn't deserve to look at 'him'."

The smoke moved its position.

"He always talks to you, as if he deserves 'him'."

The smoke moved its position(again). At the same time, Aichi was on his knees.

"This also goes the same with his other 'friends'."

"No…" Aichi held his head in his hands. Refusing the dark truth.

"Do you really think that he deserves 'him'?" That dark voice asked. His darkness was certain that he will fall, he can't escape his own dark truth. He won't.

"No…"

"Don't refuse the truth…Don't refuse the truth…Don't refuse the truth…" The sentence was repeated again and again, while the sound was moving around Aichi, as if teasing him.

"No…Stop it…"

"Don't refuse the truth…Don't refuse the truth…Don't refuse the truth…" It didn't stop.

Aichi thought for a while, what it said was true, but…

"No… I don't hate him…" It sounded like a whisper.

"Don't refuse the truth…Don't refuse the truth…Don't refuse the truth…" It still repeated, but this time, in his head.

"…No…" It was now barely a whisper. After a while, his hands dropped down. His eyes barely looked normal now. It looked as if he was lifeless.

"Yes…that's it…accept it…"

"Accept it…Accept it…Accept it…" The word that was repeated in his head changed.

"Accept it…" He himself was repeating it now, but it was slower.

After a few seconds, his eyes changed from blue to blood red.

"Accept it…" He kept repeating it. As if reminding himself.

The dark voice chuckled. It was basically music to its ears.

The black smoke that roamed around him disappeared into him.

Aichi was embracing his own darkness, accepting it.

The dark voice disappeared with it.

Aichi woke up.

He sat up on his bed, 'Was that just a dream…?'

Emi suddenly opened Aichi's door.

"Aichi! Time to wake-" Emi stopped mid-sentence.

"Oh! You are already awake. Are you alright? You don't usually wake up by yourself."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Aichi replied.

"Alright. You better get ready, you're going to be late."

Emi left his room.

Aichi went to do his usual routine.

"I'm leaving!" Emi said.

"Alright! Have a nice day at school!" Shizuka replied. (She is Aichi's mom, just in case you don't know.)

She turned around to face Aichi. "You better go too, Aichi."

Aichi went to his room to get his stuff.

'He's unusually silent today.' Shizuka thought.

"I'm leaving!" Aichi already left before she replied.

"Huh…He's quite rushed today…" Shizuka shrugged.

While he was walking to school,

'I can't wait to use this new deck, I'll show them how a REAL strong person cardfights' Aichi smirked.