This oneshot is part of an art trade with the lovely Pidge-san, who is plain awesome. So yeah. Enjoy...or something.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yuugioh! DM GX.

Shou Marufuji found the morning sun to be an intrusive pest that really did need to be taught proper manners. Warming his face to wake him up was a cute thing to do, but very inconsiderate. Sol would just have to be taught to not rise until post meridiem, even if that time was the traditional marker of a day's halfway point.

As such, Shou pushed away these thoughts in favor of some more suited for six in the morning. He rubbed the lenses of his glasses before balancing them on the bridge of his nose and stretching. After reaching his hands towards the ceiling his next thought was to get something to eat. So he stood up and tried to figure what he would do first: dress or get breakfast. Hygiene won out in the end, for even though the students that had been dyed white had no particular interest in him, Shou had become much more aware of the stains on his clothing and bodily odors that sometimes followed Juudai's posse thanks to them and their immaculate cleanliness. He had not suspected that Juudai, who was known to skip a shower every so often, was the source of the occasional stench.

Shou began wondering about a great deal of things as he stood beneath the hot spray and swirling steam of the shower. The Hikari no Kessha, Ryo, and the GX tournament were, in their own ways, the bane of his existent. But he worried most for his brother, for something had happened to him and he could not figure out what. This new man—Hell Kaiser—had emerged from somewhere that Shou felt did not really exist within Ryo's true soul. Perhaps he was a fake, he thought. A ludicrous notion, but one that made as much sense as Ryo's apparent transmutation. He sighed as he stepped out of the shower and reached for a towel.

His brother was beyond his grasp in many ways: graduated, moved on to the pro circuit, on an entirely different dueling level. Shou had not even a contact number for his brother. But he would continue to prepare for the day when they met again, even if the thought of the confrontation made Shou writhe in anxiety.

When Shou reached the Osiris cafeteria he found Jun arguing with another red student about meal portions. Kenzan and Juudai had yet to arrive, Kenzan probably off jogging around the island while Juudai having yet to even wake up.

"You make a laudable effort to steal my food, but it's not working! The Thunder needs all his energy!" Jun admonished to the retreating first year.

Shou shrugged and took his place opposite of Jun. A chopstick coated in natto was flung over his head and hit the losing party.

Jun smirked, self-satisfied, before turning his attention to Shou and frowning slightly.

"Where's your tray?" Jun asked.

Shou widened his eyes and his face became animated, mouth twisting and eyebrows twisting. How could he have forgotten, he wondered, despite knowing the answer. "Right. Haha. Need to go and get food-su."

Jun narrowed his eyes as he watched Shou jump up and scramble for the kitchen. "Get me a new pair of chopsticks."

"Sure thing!" Shou answered back across the small cafeteria. Several red students looked at the yellow-clad student who was as intrusive as the morning sun.

Shou was flustered when he returned with his portion of rice lathered in natto and a cup of miso. The harried boy passed Jun a spare pair of chopsticks while announcing, "Tome-san says the next time you use chopsticks to assault another student you'll just have to retrieve them and use them."

Jun made a "tch" sound and a face. A muscle twitched. He broke apart the chopsticks and picked at his rice.

Some time passed. Shou finished his rice and moved on to his miso. As he brought the cup to his lips Jun slammed a fist on the table, startling Shou and the students seated near them.

"Where the heck is Juudai? I. Need. My. Magazine. Back."

Shou coughed and choked on his miso before clearing his airway. He wiped a bit of spittle from the corners of his mouth and sighed.

"Aniki shouldn't be up for another ten minutes-su."

"I don't care! I ought to ... I'll just go and wake him up now," Jun reasoned, despite knowing so much better. He stood up, batted at his shoulder and muttered, "Shut up, I know what I'm doing", and sauntered out of the cafeteria.

Shou looked after Jun for a moment. He then turned his attention back to his remaining food and sat quietly. Wondering what his brother would do, he imagined Ryo pursing his lips before tacitly resuming eating his miso in that dignified matter of his. Because Ryo was really the only person Shou knew who could make drinking from a small bowl look like a stately thing that only kings and princes were capable of. The only problem was that Ryo never had eaten in the Osiris cafeteria before, a fact shattering Shou's little illusion.

Shou, indifferent, finished the last of his breakfast. It was not as though it was the first time he had been disillusioned by his brother.

Juudai grinned widely as he gestured at Shou with his infamous two-fingered victory salute followed quickly by his"wonderful duel" punchline. Shou smiled too, though not as enthusiastically. Both boys gathered their cards back into their decks and began to shuffle.

Shou reasoned that trying to beat Juudai in a duel was like trying to find a bucket of steam.

Above them Pharaoh sat on a rafter, staring intently at the boys as though it really did understand what was going on. He yawned as he observed Juudai pull a five-turn win. He stretched while Shou asked for a break so he could finish his homework. Juudai agreed with a winsome smile, taking out a notebook and scribbling down what appeared to be a kanji but was, upon a second glance, really just an under-drawing for a human figure with a muscular constitution. Kenzan joined them long enough to report his status in the GX tournament, before turning away and leaving, citing a need to fulfill an obligation to duel a blue student.

It was seven in the evening.

"Say, Juudai," Shou began without lifting his eyes from his textbook, "Would you happen to still have Jun's copy of The Duelist? I was looking for one in the shop today, but Tome-san said they haven't received any copies yet."

"I've still got it," Juudai said. He grinned and stood up. Reaching under his mattress, he fished out the copy and tossed it to Shou who, with outstretched arms, almost caught it. A few of the glossy pages suffered tears. "Jun doesn't get it back until I finish reading about Katsuya."

"Right...Isn't there an article about my brother in here?"

"Yeah...Try page fifty-six."

And as Juudai had said, there was a two-page spread about his brother. It was not an article per se, but rather a cluster of blurbs and factoids arranged in a circular fashion around two images of Ryo positioned back-to-back. One of them was of him in the Academia and marked "BEFORE" in bold yellow lettering, while the other was a picture of him in his new black leather raiment and was marked "NOW" in prominent red lettering. Shou scanned the spread and allowed his eyes to stop on a paragraph titled "The Reverse Phoenix Syndrome".

The writer said that something had dragged his brother out of his losing streak brought about by his defeat by Edo Phoenix, guessing that Ryo had sold his soul to the devil, that "Hell" was in his new moniker for this reason.

Shou, extremely put off by the writer and his wrong opinions, closed the magazine and laid it at his feet.

"Such things they publish-su. Should be illegal."

"Yeah, Did you know that Jun submitted an article to them once? A group of white students tried to flood the magazine with Hikari no Kessha...what it's called...?"

"Propaganda?"

"Yeah, that."

"But did they ever publish any of it-su?"

"Not that I know of. But it just goes to show that people think they can get anything published."

Shou nodded. He was sure that there was something profound in Juudai's words, or as profound as anything Juudai could manage, but he was distracted by floating thoughts of his brother. What did his brother think about all these people painting an image of him, using words as brushes and rumors as paint?

Shou wondered. But he did not find his answer.

"Shou," Juudai began suddenly. He waited for Shou to look up at him. "If you were to have an article published about you, what would it be? Mine would be about the burning soul of my heroes!" And Juudai demonstrated his enthusiasm by launching a fist above his head.

"I don't know-su. Why would anyone want to even write an article about me?"

"Aww, come on! Don't be like that. I bet it would be a Q and A about machines."

"Not likely-su."

Juudai frowned. He stood up, sat down, and opened his mouth as if he was going to say something.

Shou watched this wordless display quietly.

Then Juudai smiled brightly, tilting his head and closing his eyes, which greatly magnified the impression of Juudai Yuuki Is Happy already seeping from his pores.

Juudai scribbled something on the notebook he had previously been drawing in. "So, tell me, Marufuji Shou, what is your greatest inspiration for dueling?"

"Eh? What're you doing?"

"Bringing the readers what they want. You know. I want to know more about the real Marufuji Shou," Juudai said in such a way that suggested Shou somehow managed to live a double life.

"Aniki Please stop it-su! No article, no nonsense. No teasing me."

"Teasing you?" Juudai frowned. "All right, here. I'll put away my notebook and we can keep the talk off the record." The Osiris student placed the notebook and on the floor slowly, as if he really was reluctant to be parted from the tools of his newfound trade.

Shou wondered if Juudai ever considered a career in drama.

"Right, then. Seriously. Tell me about yourself. Like...hmm...What's been bothering you."

"Oh, nothing, really," Shou lied easily. He figured that Juudai would never pick up on it, anyway.

But sometimes he was wrong about things other than moves in a duel.

"Your brother, then. Tell me about him. Yah! The heartfelt confession of the burning heart of the sibling of a Pro!" Juudai announced to the room. Pharaoh yawned, sat up, and stretched. Shou thought that Juudai would make a wonderful duel commentator. Or maybe even for hockey.

"Really, I am good-su."

"Don't lie to me or I'll make you clean Pharaoh's litter box!" The two boys looked over at the orange cat who had been making its leisurely way over to them. Pharaoh sat down on its haunches and met their gaze with a look could have said so-you-think-your-bathroom-smells-better-than-mine?

Shou rose an eyebrow. Then he turned back to face Juudai. "All right, all right. But I...Haven't I already told you everything?"

"We really have never traded pasts. This will be our...past-to-past night."

"...What? Do you mean heart-to-heart-su?"

"It's the same effect, right? My past touches yours. Like that." Juudai made an expansive gesture with his hand.

"Whatever. Anyway..." Shou paused for a few minutes. Juudai was respectively silent. To explain something...What exactly would he tell Juudai? There was a lot to say and only so many hours in a day. But he would do his best, taking advantage of the bits he had already told Juudai and working from there to connect them all and provide the best panorama of his ( and his brother's, for it was not his story alone) past as possible. "Well it begins with...No one else really knows this so you can't tell anyone. Promise?"

Juudai nodded firmly.

"Right. It started with... "

It started with a simple letter addressed to a nine-year-old Ryo. At the time he knew no one who would possibly send single him out and send a letter, so his parents considered throwing it away without opening it.

They were glad they did not act so rashly.

Two weeks later Ryo was sent away to a remote region in Nepal to be trained in a secret art form of Duel Monsters. But before he left he imparted a serious task to his brother; become a good duelist that can have balanced and respectful duels with me when I return.

Shou, who had always looked up to his older brother, immediately became serious about his dueling. He played game after game, fought challenger after challenger. His days in elementary school were filled with so many duels it all became a blurry mental mush, so to speak. Within six months callouses had replaced the soft skin of Shou's hands. He had paper cuts. He imagined that he, despite his age, had traces of toned sinews in his upper arms from whipping his arms around so frequently.

He was becoming a true duelist.

Summer came and his brother did not return.

So he trained harder and harder. He started and maintained a winning-streak which climaxed at thirty-two.

Then Ryo came home.

Sho tried to talk to his brother, but something had changed. Connecting with his returned brother was beyond his capabilities. Yet he still tried.

Shou broke his winning-streak in front of Ryo.

His parents seemed ignorant the changes in their son. Rather they became more aware of their son's dueling and even began to place their pride in his abilities despite Ryo being hardly old enough to understand the kanji written on his cards.

Ryo, meanwhile, taught Shou many things about dueling. Respect, ability, and strategy were his lessons. With his help Shou became a much better duelist, though he may have been a bit too harsh with his teaching methods.

But their parents did not notice Shou's ability. If one had asked them what Shou did as a hobby they would have answered collected machine knickknacks. And that was true to an extent.

The two of them lived out their lives for the next two years. Shou always tried to reach his brother, but something remained changed. A connection had been severed and never properly mended. And, as such things are, seemed as though it would remain this way forever. Ryo was accepted into Duel Academia when he came of age.. His parents were overjoyed, of course.

Two years later Shou entered the academia. His parents were surprised, shocked, and worried.

Their second son did not seem like the type to really fit in the world of professional Duel Monsters. But they said nothing, but instead figured that all of it was just a stage in which Shou was trying to compensate for the lack of a fraternal connection with Ryo.

And that was true to an extent.

"And they were right to an extent-su. I was looking for Ryo, but I was also looking for a lot more. But now I am just looking for him. Well...mostly him."

"Shou..." Juudai rubbed the back of his head while gazing at the orange feline curled up against Shou's leg. This was definitely one of those moments he wished he had something profound to say.

"But it's okay. I just figure that I will always be chasing after him ... I mean, I do want to catch up with him and duel him. I know that day will come...even if I never will be ready. It's just I'm so used to chasing ... I don't think I'd know what to do when I finally reached him-su."

"Well, you'd duel him. Right?"

"But beside that-su. Aniki...he is my brother. I'd have to say something more than 'good morning' before he beat me in duel-su."

"Aww, don't worry about it. You're ready to take 'im now! I'm sure the words will just come to you, too. He's your brother, after all."

"Yeah. ..." Shou wished that he could agree with Juudai. He was coming from an earnest place, after all. But it was fair to say that Juudai's guilelessness made Shou a bit jealous. How he wanted that kind of confidence. How would his brother would treat him if he ever found it, he wondered. (Probably a lot better than he treated himself these days, Shou figured.)

"Right, then. This'll make a great story."

"Aniki."

"But I won't submit it, of course. You entrusted it to me, right?"

Shou nodded gravely. "Only you-su. You're the only one that really cares."

"I'm sure your brother cares, Shou."

"Mmm, maybe," Shou said. His head was angled downward but his tone was even. When he did look up Juudai was smiling widely at him. "Well...probably-su."

It was good to have some care about him, even if that person really was not his brother.