Having finally been able to convince his brother that he could walk to and from school with his or Orbital's assitance, Haruto waved a final goodbye to one of his friends and began heading home.

He had just a few assignments to complete that night, and would might just be able to catch his brother for a quick duel before he left for work! That was motivation enough to go through the tiresome math problems, and he knew it would dissapoint Kaito if he were to be negligent.

"Ah, hello there! You must be Haruto!" an older, yet still quite young, voice broke through his thoughts.

"Hmm?" Haruto pondered out loud, turning to face the strange orange haired boy in the middle schoolers outfit.

Maybe one of Yuma's friends?

"My name's Rei! One of Yuma and Kaito's friends."

"You know my brother?" Haruto questioned, turning to face the other. He looked friendly enough…and he did say he knew his brother.

"Yup! We've got some urgent business to attend to! He asked me to bring you to him right away."

"Why didn't he send Orbital?"

"He's busy helping your brother in his duel, it's against some…" pausing to look around for affect, Rei continued on, "Kind of Barian? I don't know, but he told me to get you somewhere safe and quickly!" figuring since Haruto came off as a naive looking kid, Vector didn't bother making much of an elaborate story.

If his brother was in danger, the young boy would be sure to come along.

Extending his hand for the younger to take, Rei smiled easily at him as they made their way down the sidewalk.

It was much easier than he thought it would be. Obtaining this power…sure it wasn't as fun as he would have liked, but he needed it now.

"I remember you now." the young boy stated quietly, slowly slipping his small, fragile hand from the others.

"Oh? I go to school around here—"

"You're the one who hurt my brother." Haruto stated solidly, taking a step back to meet Rei's eyes.

"…I'm sorry?" he tried to play off, quickly realizing the boy must have felt his presence as a Barian.

"The one who took over my dad—and Chris' dad…you…" Haruto began heaving, not sure how to deal with this influx of rage.

"…me? Now, now, it was all because of your illness they got hurt, little Haruto…" now resuming his natural, deeper tone of voice, Vector grinned down malevolently at the child.

Human's were so easy. He could just play off the child's enevitable guilt. He had him alone now, and would be able to take him away without much effort.

This was too easy.

"…yes, you're right."

"Of course I'm—"

"But so am I." Haruto was quick to cut Vector off, feeling his body swelling up with fury. "It's my fault that everyone got hurt. And I liked hurting them…I even liked hurting brother. But I'm better now, and won't let anyone else get hurt because of me."

"Such cute little sentiments, you sound just like your father when he was begging for your pathetic little life."

"…we may have done bad things…but we're trying to get better! I may have hurt everyone, but you did too. And I can protect my brother, my dad, and all my friends from you."

"You really think you have any friends left after what you did? Don't you know they all want to leave you behind, that they would all be so much happier without you around?" leering down at the now quivering boy, Vector kept his gaze low and daunting.

People were easy to break down. They were always looking for a reason to give up.

"That doesn't matter to me. I will protect them, because I love them." balling up his fists and holding out a single hand, Haruto felt his eyes fill up with light as a burst of energy was released from his palm.

He wasn't weak anymore. He could fight too.

"Tch you," Vector started, barely dodging the blast that knocked over several cars.

"Fight me. I may not be able to duel as well as brother or Yuma, but I will fight you."

Knowing very well his powers were not restored as soundly as he needed them to be, Vector was quick to cast Haruto a final glare before summoning a portal.

"This isn't over."

"Coward." the young boy shot back, feeling his nerves tingling in agony after releasing such a large blast.

But no one needed to know about that.

…should he tell his brother or…would he just go back to worrying about him?

Well…it's not like this was anything Haruto couldn't handle.

It would be fine.