Our Last Moment
By KellyQ
Tori stood on a marble floor with five pillars erected to the black reddish sky. Before her was Ryoga, also known as Nash, a Barian, the only Barian left, was dueling Yuma and Astral, a spirit, who would advise him on the best strategies to use when Yuma was in a tight pinch.
Their heated duel was reaching a climax. They had their best monsters towering over them, ready to strike at each other's life points. In the mist of their duel, Yuma expounded on how their previous duels were the most important to him. Their fist duel, especially. That was how he first got to know Ryoga, and adopted the nickname, Shark, due to the monsters he used which were all sharks.
Over time, Yuma started to develop a strong passion for Ryoga that went beyond friendship. But Yuma wasn't sure how Ryoga felt about him. As far as Yuma knew, Ryoga probably saw him as a comrade. Not that Yuma minded that, he hoped that Ryoga felt the same about him.
Unfortunately, when Yuma found out that Ryoga was a Barian, a race of enemy beings from another dimension, Yuma went into a state of shock for a few days. When Yuma recovered, he tried to keep a clear head about the truth about Ryoga. He didn't want to accept the cold fact about Ryoga. He wanted to see Ryoga for who he was - strong, stubborn, and with a will to fight - not his enemy.
Since then, Yuma had tried to convince Ryoga that his new path he chose wasn't the right one. His friends, Flip, a short and scrawny boy with glasses, Kite, a stubborn blonde, and Bronk, a chubby teen with a sunny disposition, on the other hand, didn't understand why Yuma cared that much about Ryoga, but they supported him by fighting alongside him. In the end, Flip, Kite, and Bronk lost their duels and disappeared.
Tori perceived this duel to be one of the most heart rendering one she had witnessed. A duel between two people who were giving it their all, and the most painful because they were trying not to hurt each other physically and mentally, knowing it was probably going to be their last duel.
That hard fact was biting at Yuma's conscious throughout the duel and he didn't want that; if Ryoga lost the duel, he could disappear like all the rest of his friends.
Ryoga, on the other hand, knew the only way to save Yuma's friends was to lose. If he did that, things would go back to normal. He wanted to be omitted from Yuma's life because of what he was, and what he did.
Although Yuma wasn't seeing it that way, Ryoga knew why. As a result, he didn't understand how Yuma could be so forgiving and accepting of who he was when all Ryoga did was cause so much hurt to him.
Yuma was now down to fifty life points, and Ryoga had twelve-hundred life points remaining. Ryoga sighed, knowing that he could use his monster to wipe out the last of Yuma's life points which meant that Yuma would lose Astral, and the sensible spirt wouldn't be able to obtain his memories, and that wouldn't be fair to either one of them.
"It's my turn," Ryoga said, whipping out a card, "I draw!" He glanced at it before he made eye contact with Yuma. He slapped a spell card, Glorious on his duel disk, saying that the pell card can attach the rest of the Banished Chaos Over-Hundred Numbers to Dystopic Barian as Overlay Units, raising its attack points to 7,000. A portal opened and two more stars appeared next to Ryoga, and his monster's attack points went from 300 to 7,000. Ryoga went on from there to explain more about the spell card effects and one of them was to drop the rest of his life points to zero.
Astral's eyes widened and asked Ryoga if that was his plan from the start.. Yuma's eyes widened too, and tried to convince Ryoga not to do it. Unfortunately, the spell card activated before Yuma and Astral could react. Ryoga went flying backwards due to his monsters being destroyed.
"Shark!"
Yuma dashed forward and caught Ryoga before he hit the ground. It's finally over, Ryoga thought, allowing Yuma to steady him.
"Are you okay?" Yuma asked, looking him up and down for any blood.
Naturally, Ryoga would be incensed by Yuma's fuss, but he was going to let it slide.
"I'm fine, Yuma," Ryoga reassured, looking compassionately at him.
"That's good," Yuma said, pulling out a rag and started to rub the dirt off of Ryoga's face.
As much as Ryoga liked it, he had to give Astral the number cards, and say three words to Yuma since he didn't have that much time at all. He moved Yuma's hand away from his face and leaned close to Yuma's ear.
"Thank you," Ryoga whispered, moving to kiss Yuma on the lips.
At first, Yuma was surprised, but he deepened the kiss and wrapped his arms around Ryoga, not wanting to let go of him. Tori watched with sympathy, knowing that it was only going to be a matter of moments before Ryoga would disappear..
By now, Ryoga was glowing, and handing the number cards to Astral.
"Wait!" Yuma panicked. He wasn't ready to accept that he wasn't going to see Ryoga ever again. By this point Ryoga was slowly being pulled toward a ball of light that was behind him.
"Thank you, Astral and Tori ... you two were great friends .." Ryoga paused, and glanced at Yuma, who had tears in his eyes, and he was shaking his head in despair. "I love you, Yuma ..."
"Shark!" Yuma cried, ready to dash forward, reaching for him again.
"I always have ..."
Suddenly the light taking Ryoga blinded the three temporarily - once it was safe to see, Yuma stood there with shock in his eyes, and his hand was still outstretched. It only took a moment for the three to realize that Ryoga was gone, and they were back in Heartland City.
The End