"So you're saying we should leave the others behind?" Ryouga raises an eyebrow in confusion, he had not expected Kaito to suggest something like that.

Kaito sighs as he stares at his food - rice balls; a memory of Yuuma who (or whose card) they have yet to find - and then looks up to meet Ryouga's gaze again. "I'm saying our battlefield isn't theirs."

There's a pause in which Ryouga just finishes eating, and Kaito feels like it's too quiet outside.

Perhaps Academia is planning something.

"I see." Ryouga looks out of the window and eyes the broken Heartland tower. "You're saying they'll die along with us if we keep staying with them."

It's not a question.

If Kaito meant something else, he'd say it, and Ryouga knows that, so he just continues, "But will they survive without us?"

"We are just gonna make sure Academia does not even reach them. Besides," Kaito swallows the rest of his food before continuing. "They have specific orders to kill us, they won't bother focusing on a group of people that only has two duelists to defend them."

They don't bother sugarcoating it anymore - a person who has been turned into a card is a dead person. Academia members never bother picking up the cards of their fallen allies, so the carding process is likely irreversible - that's what Kaito's analysis also suggests.

And that means Academia is out to kill Ryouga and Kaito.

"It doesn't surprise me," Ryouga chuckles in a way that holds no actual joy, "We are responsible for more than two thirds of the casualties on their side, after all."

"And I will make sure that there's nothing left of them in the end." Kaito takes out his deck and counts the cards as he speaks - a habit that comes from knowing that the cards are all that sustains his life right now. "So, you agree with my plan now?"

"Yeah." Ryouga crosses his arms. "But what do we do if the others disagree?"

Kaito mimics Ryouga's pose - their body language had always been this similar. "I rather have them angry at us while they're alive over liking us while they're dead."

Ryouga clenches his teeth. "...Fine. If that's the case," he takes out a map and quickly unfolds it, "we should decide who hunts in what part of Heartland."

Hunting. If it's a hunt, it's a game; if it's a game, it doesn't hurt.

That's what they've been trying to tell themselves.

Pointing at the parts of the city as he speaks, Ryouga continues, "Up there are the Heart and Diamond districts. I will take care of those two. You will cover Clover and Spade."

"Still looking for Yuuma, huh."

"He wouldn't die like that. And we haven't found his card yet, so..."

"Fine. You can hunt there." Kaito slightly clenches his fist as he says that.

Ryouga notices it immediately. "If I find V's card, I will definitely tell you."

Heartland tower, located in the Heart district, is where V and Haruto met their end, but Kaito has yet to find V's card - it got lost in the rubble.

Like almost everything Kaito valued, anyway.

"Same goes for IV's card," Kaito says, and it's more quiet than usual.

They've both lost everything, and now all that's left is the two of them and the memories they collect.

Ryouga nods and folds the map before standing up. "Let's go then." He moves to leave.

Kaito catches his wrist.

"Ryouga."

"What?"

"Don't die."

"I'm not an idiot."