Ren watched the last card fall into his damage zone, and lowered his head with a smile. "You've gotten stronger again, Suiko-san."

"Have I?" she answered, with clear amusement. "Well, the 'Suiko' you knew only had two or three years of experience. Maybe she just couldn't catch up." Suiko placed her elbow in her palm and pointed to him, her gestures painfully familiar. Ren's expression didn't falter, holding eye contact as he backed away from the fight table. "But the present 'me' has shown you defeat. Now, Suzugamori Ren, come with me." Pillars of light shot out of the floor in a circle, caging Ren in where he stood.

"Stop!"

"Asaka-"

Tetsu reached out to stop her, but Asaka stormed heedlessly forward and slammed her deck down on the mat. "Fight me!"

Suiko considered her silently, almost impassively. Asaka slapped down her starting vanguard, but as she went to draw her hand, Suiko's voice cut through the movement, saying, "No, I don't think I will."

"What?" Asaka's gaze snapped up to see Suiko slide her own deck back into its case. "Why?! Don't you run away from me, Tatsunagi Suiko!"

Suiko's movements stopped.

"Tatsunagi...?" she repeated slowly. "Who is that? It's rather rude to call someone by the wrong name, Narumi Asaka." She smiled when Asaka flinched. "Suzugamori Ren is the only one needed for our purposes, so I wouldn't gain anything from fighting you." The ground beneath hers and Ren's feet began to flicker and glow white, its brilliance slowly increasing.

"I-"

"Goodbye, Narumi Asaka. Shinjou Tetsu."

The lights became a brilliant flash, and both Suiko and Ren were gone.

-o-

Tetsu stepped out of the elevator and strode across Asaka's floor of the building to find her just where he expected, high up on her trapeze. "Asaka."

"What do you want?" she asked, tone flat. He waited for her to lower herself to the ground before answering, which she did after a moment more.

"Sendou Aichi's friends have found a way into their base. From there, it seems they were repelled back, but the path has remained open." He paused, studying her expression as it brightened and then warily fell. "If you challenge her again, under these circumstances, she'll be forced to answer you."

"And then what? If I lose, and we'll be forced back just like them! Suiko is on a different level now. Right now, she is... Suiko is... impossible to reach."

"Before, that didn't seem to hold you back," commented Tetsu.

"I wasn't considering it clearly!" she snapped. "How can you talk so optimistically? More than anyone else, you must be discouraged by Ren-sama's loss!"

Tetsu closed his eyes.

"True, the current Suiko is overwhelmingly strong," he relented slowly, his voice even. "But the 'Tatsunagi Suiko' who I was familiar with didn't show her hesitation easily. If that hasn't changed... no, even if it has, today, she reacted clearly to your resolve." Tetsu met her eyes with all the certainty he had, and told her, "Asaka. She is not beyond your reach."

Asaka pressed her lips together tightly and gave a quick, single nod.

-o-

"I'm surprised to find you working for Void," said Ren to his visitor, through the row of white bars dividing the room in half. He lounged back on his prison bed, watching Suiko as she shrugged her folded arms.

"It made me certain promises," she told him airily. "Ones I would be foolish to refuse."

"Hmmm." He lolled his head to one side and studied her with narrowed eyes. "It's really true, I guess~. This Suiko is much more sure of herself after all."

"Oh?" She brought a hand to her mouth, covering a close-lipped half-laugh. "Well, I suppose amnesia could give a person a number of self-doubts."

"Bu-t." Her face faded into a distant frown from that alone, and Ren's own smile tugged out a little further on one side.

"But?" she humored him eventually.

"Mmm~. The other Suiko didn't look so lonely."

She scoffed, before pulling up a perfect, mild, hostess smile, and told him, "Would you know very much about loneliness, Suzugamori Ren?"

"Ahh, I wonder." He rubbed the back of his head. "But I know just a little about you, Ta-tsu-na-gi."

"I would appreciate if you would stop," she scolded him lightly, without even losing her smile.

"Boo," complained Ren as he flopped onto his back. "That look isn't as interesting as the one Asaka got from you."

"A person would normally feel bothered if they were willfully addressed with another name. That's common sense."

"Ehh, is it?"

"It is." Something about the easy exchange left a bad taste in her mouth, and she found herself frowning once more and leaning a bit further back. "You moved back to let her take your place, after you lost."

"Ah! You noticed." He sat up again to smile at her straight on, leaning far forward as though overcompensating for the slight bit of distance she had just placed between them. "That's right, that sort of path is opened to you when you have friends."

"Hoh? So you're the sort to depend on others to make up for your failures?" Something about the question made him laugh sheepishly. "But in this case, that path is of no help to you. Aren't you the strongest among them? In fact, Narumi Asaka- she's not even as strong as your other friend, is she?"

"True, Tetsu is the reliable one, usually... but Asaka is reliable, too. Ah, and Suiko-san, too. Eh?" Ren scratched his cheek and frowned. "Could it be that I'm the only unreliable one?"

Suiko puffed out a laugh. "Either way, it makes no difference. With my power, both of them will lose to me."

"Hmmmmm... Probably. Suiko-san is tough, after all," he agreed, too casually. Though only slightly, he noted her eyebrows draw closer together.

"That's a surprisingly easy-going reaction."

"Well, you know, Asaka's eyes... When she starts a fight, they get really intense, don't you think?" At that, her smile decidedly dropped. Ren leaned even further forward, propping his elbows up on his knees. "I wonder if you can bear to stare them down. In that," He pointed up at her, half-aiming towards her chest. "Suiko-san is weak, after all. Even this one."

Suiko bit back a scowl and turned to leave. "I'll come back to check on you again later."

Ren sat up and leaned back onto his palms. "Suiko-san," he called after her. Perhaps only out of manners, she paused and looked back at her. "You're our friend."

She left.

After a moment, Ren shifted in place and looked around at his surroundings. He scratched his cheek, flopped down into the sheets once more, and lay still for a short time. "Ahhhhh... This is boring."

-o-

Tetsu and Asaka found themselves walking down a long hallway toward their goal; they were intercepted by Suiko before crossing even half of it.

"Welcome, both of you," Suiko said, smile sweet and plastic, while Asaka brought out her deck.

"This time, you'll fight me," she barked, slamming the words down just as she did her deck on the floating table Suiko summoned.

"Yes, this time I will," she humored her, almost laughing, and they drew their hands and stood their vanguards.

Two cards hit Asaka's damage zone on the second turn, and she grit her teeth as she stood her units. "Why did you become our enemy, Suiko?"

"Why?" Suiko tilted her head, giving her an amused look. "I have my reasons, but more than that, what reason would I have not to? Your leader, Suzugamori Ren, also seems to forget that you all are strangers to me."

"I want to know anyway!" Asaka rested her units and declared her attack, and Suiko placed down a grade 1 to guard one attack. "I won't accept this unless your answer satisfies me!"

"My goodness, how self-important. I don't feel the need to explain myself at all. Call." She half-filled her field in one go and aimed first for Asaka's rearguard before pitting their vanguards against each other.

"Hmph," said Asaka, presenting stronger than she felt, trying to convince herself she was fine. "Then I have no choice- I'll just have to bring you back! Guard!" Suiko narrowed her eyes and ended her turn.

Asaka rode the Pale Moon breakride, but even while building up to a greater attack, she arranged her units and stand triggers and managed five attacks; some Suiko let pass, but she guarded and intercepted well enough still to hold at three damage. "Turn end," she ground out through her teeth, already eying her potential guard. Her heart pounded with insistence on victory, desperation gnawing at her every thought.

As Suiko placed the next card in her own hand, she spoke up, "Bring me back? You still don't understand. For me, who has no memory of it, there's nothing to go back to. Your Suiko is gone." Asaka's free hand curled on the table into a fist, and Suiko pressed on, "Those times have nothing to do with me!"

"Then I'll make you remember!" Asaka shot back. "I don't believe those memories are gone! I know they're somewhere inside of you- I'll find them and drag them back out!"

"I don't care to listen to your fantasies. Attack!" Suiko's attacks stacked up their power to challenging numbers, and even accepting two of them, with how many cards she'd spent on her field the last turn, Asaka nearly emptied her hand blocking just the last. Still, she held to four damage, she tried to tell her singing nerves.

"They're no fantasies. The Suiko I came to know would tease and kid around too much, but she came through in a crisis, and- and her coffee was delicious," Asaka persisted, her voice cracking oddly on the last phrase. Suiko's shoulders hunched defensively. "Those things, your gestures, your way of speaking, they're entirely unchanged!"

"But my choices aren't the same, or else we wouldn't be standing here," she retaliated, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Isn't that right, Narumi Asaka?"

"Choices make no difference. We'll stand by each other regardless!" Asaka looked down to study her own cards so intently that she missed the look that crossed Suiko's face. "Ride!"

Once again, Asaka managed a barrage of attacks, but Suiko's hand was greater, and with a damage trigger, she held out easily. Frustration pricked at Asaka's eyes as she ended her turn, glaring down at the critical.

"You're presuming too much. I want nothing to do with you, and you're going to be escorting yourselves out shortly!" Suiko rode and powered up once more, and immediately attacked Asaka's vanguard directly.

"I won't!" She slammed her palm on the table and threw down a perfect guard, discarding a grade 3. "Even if you beat me here, I'll come back, again and again, until you return to us! Suiko!"

Suiko bared a sliver of teeth and placed her hand on the deck for the drive check. "I am not Tatsunagi Suiko. I won't trade in my life for some stranger's on a whim!"

All game, Asaka had been so focused on her cards to keep pace with Suiko, she had only glanced up for brief periods- but now she looked up and caught Suiko's gaze fully, staring with eyes wide. They seemed to overflow with realization and an absolute resolve which slowly consumed all else; Ren's words flashed through Suiko's mind, and she stepped back unbidden, her own determination awash.

Suiko drew no triggers.

"Not yet," she declared, and attacked with her right column.

"No guard!"

Asaka's fifth damage wasn't a trigger, but on Suiko's third attack, she threw out her whole hand and an intercept and stopped it regardless.

"End turn." Suiko had wanted to end it there, but with Asaka's hand empty and one of her rearguards gone, there was no way for her to hold out the next time Suiko's turn came around. Suiko could still afford to take one more damage, and had plenty of guard in her hand and on her field, while Asaka was nearly out of counterblast; the game was already decided.

Asaka drew, and Suiko's uneasy, stranded feeling didn't leave.

"You know, for a while, I didn't like you at all," Asaka huffed, crossing her arms. Suiko smiled carefully and narrowed her eyes.

"Is that right?"

"Completely. I found you absolutely aggravating- you made fun of me, and you had no respect for boundaries, and it was like you were constantly in my way, for every little thing." Suiko laughed.

"It sounds like I made quite a nuisance of myself."

"Make no mistake, you definitely did." Asaka turned her face away, tilting her chin toward her shoulder. She gripped her sleeve at the bend of her elbow, steeling herself, not quite able to make eye contact again yet. "But truthfully, it was on me. I shut you out and used you as a target for my frustrations, even though what really frustrated me was my own weakness."

Suiko's fingers flinched around her cards.

"But when the calamity of Reverse happened, we went through it together," Asaka continued. Suiko shut her eyes and shook her head, willing away the images suddenly welling up inside her. "Even when Ren-sama had to run ahead, you stood beside me! I won't let that be wiped away!" Asaka called her single card to rearguard and sent it to the soul to unflip one damage, and called two from the soul, powering up her front line. "Pay close attention to me now, Suiko! The name 'Tatsunagi' is meaningless to me!"

Suiko's eyes went wide. "Eh?"

"Your name, your life- your goals and your family, too. All of those things that are important to you right now, no one is asking you to leave them behind! Maybe you're nothing like the Suiko I knew, but that won't change my feelings!" Asaka reached out and turned her vanguard on its side. "I'm going to pay you back what I owe, and stay by you!"

Suiko grimaced and pressed her palm to her temple, then pulled a perfect guard from her hand and set it on the guardian circle.

"You made a grievous error, Suiko." Asaka turned up the first check. "Critical trigger- all effects to the right rearguard."

Suiko huffed, half-laughing even as she leaned heavily on the table. "And what would that be? I don't feel especially mistaken in this fight." Even with the trigger's effects, she had enough to block, and at four damage, she could afford to let one attack through- unless Asaka drew another critical trigger.

She looked up at Asaka's standing rearguards, and something squeezed in her chest- was that why Asaka had attacked with her vanguard first?

"You joined with Void for power," stated Asaka. "In other words, in losing your memories, you forgot the most important fact there is: the surest road to power is on Ren-sama's team!" Eyes flashing, grinning wildly, Asaka turned over the second check, as if she knew-

Critical trigger.

"All effects to the left column!" With that, Suiko no longer had the guard to block both attacks. "Prepare yourself, Suiko! Right now, you're going to be brought down by the vice-captain of the Fukuhara cardfight club! Attack!"

"Damage check," Suiko announced, her voice wavering lightly. If she drew a heal trigger on the second check, she would win, she knew distantly; she turned over the first check.

Heal trigger.

"Power to vanguard," she said, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards. Second check: Nothing. "My loss," she murmured, and then began to laugh. It was the theatrics that did it, in the end- she was overtaken by the overwhelming familiarity of Asaka's relentless, flashy pride.

"Su- Suiko?"

"You're really nasty," she accused, still chuckling faintly as she covered her face with one hand. "Leaving me in the dark all this time, only to say those things now, when it's to your benefit... I wonder, did you get that habit from him?"

"Wha-"

"The both of you... How dangerously awkward." Abruptly, she slumped to her knees.

"Suiko!" Asaka called out, running to her side.

"I'm all right, Asaka," she told her, delighting a little in her look of surprise. Suiko smiled up at her and offered out her hands. "Will you help me up?" Asaka nodded, slightly red, and took Suiko's hands in hers to pull her to her feet. Suiko glanced at her, and at Tetsu, and then closed her eyes. "Well, then, I'll show you both to Ren-kun."