Title: Girl in the Glass

Summary: She had conquered her psychic powers. She had defeated a Dark Signer. Saved the world. And yet, after it had all ended, life went on.

Notes: Takes place shortly after series end. One – shot.

Rating: K

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.


She had conquered her psychic powers. She had defeated a Dark Signer. She and her friends had fought enemies from the future in a place called Ark Cradle, and won. Defeated Z-One. Saved the world.

And yet, after it had all ended, life went on.

The mark on Aki's arm was the only physical feature she possessed that could reveal her unique role in the scheme of the world as a Signer, one of the six servants of the Crimson Dragon. Aki Izayoi could be any normal girl who simply loved spending time with her friends and went to Duel Academy.

Especially after her haircut.

Aki sat down in the bright chair at the salon where her mother got her own hair done. She had decided almost impulsively the other day that she wanted this.

"It'll be like a new look for a new beginning," she had explained to Ruka. There was no need for Aki to wear the curler – like device that controlled her powers anymore, and she'd have to cut her bangs short if she wanted to rid herself of the device for good.

A lady with a big smile and big hair to match greeted Aki warmly. After she had babbled about the striking resemblance between Aki and her mother, she asked what the former psychic duelist wanted.

"Just cut the bangs in the middle, please, and layer the back. I'm thinking of growing it out,"

The woman tied the sheet to catch hair around Aki's neck and set to work with her silver scissors. Aki shut her eyes as small snippets of her strawberry hair fluttered down from her face as they were cut. She couldn't remember the last time she had had a haircut before this.

With a flourish, the hairdresser finished cutting Aki's bangs. Aki opened her brown, cat shaped eyes and looked straight ahead into the mirror. Faintly she heard the hairdresser recommend a headband would go nice with the style, and a red headband was placed on the top of her head like a crown. After a moment of hesitation, Aki removed the choker and necklace that had adorned her neck for years.

The girl in the mirror peered back at Aki with a soft look of confusion. Her even bangs framed her elongated, heart shaped face. Her neck seemed much longer and slender without the presence of the choker.

But furthermore, the girl in the mirror was a stranger.

She could have been any normal girl who lived in the city of New Domino. She was certainly not a crazed psychic or an intense Turbo Duelist. She was the softer side of Aki underneath all the psychic powers and dramatic destinies. Another girl in the crowd, a plain member of society. Aki did not know what to think.

Where was the girl who had been with her this whole time? The girl in the mirror who had been through those life changing things with her, the one who had peered at her from the reflective walls of the Arcadia Movement to the broken shards of glass littered where she had fought Misty. The one familiar sight when her world had been upside down had disappeared, abandoned her, and had been replaced by a new Aki Izayoi. A different girl in the glass, who, impossibly, was still her.

A new her. A new beginning. A new future.

This was her.

The End