"Baku has been…my one and only"
The words ripped through the air and reached Baku's ears amongst the clamour of the Buddyfighting arena, and gave him pause. He started, jerking his head up to stare dumbfounded at the stage his cousin - his coach - was for all appearances just the same as he always looked. Or, Baku supposed, as he had always looked having joined Disaster. The Gremlin- no, Retsu Omori, that Baku knew was kind and sweet. He taught Baku things, so many wonderful things, about decks, about Buddyfighting, about love.
They say that for every good deed there must be a price paid in exchange, and Baku's memories with his cousin were no different. He wouldn't call them 'bad' or 'punishment' as Retsu had sometimes tried to make him think they were, but honestly Baku had always felt very pleasantly sleepy afterwards. His one and only… he'd heard those words before, whispered in the dead of night during one of their sleepovers as a soft kiss was pressed to his eyelid while he pretended to sleep. A lingering gaze or touch of the hands that carried those words silently to him as though they were as intangible as the wind. Of the events themselves, Baku had little memory. They had always, for him, ended with a blinding sensation and a twitching of his extremities - of his fingers and toes, his hands clenching and unclenching on instinct as something deep within him unravelled in a split-second. He had been six years old when it started. He knew because he considered it one of his best memories of his cousin, and so carried that memory around like a badge of honour, always eager to tell people of the events leading up to the climactic moment but never crossing the topic itself because young he may still be but he knew what was appropriate to discuss with your friends and what was not. And even if he wanted to, Retsu had made him promise all that time ago that they must keep it a secret lest they be torn apart. They were in love, Retsu had said, Baku was his one and only and he made a point of telling Baku this whenever they were alone and together. And now, so many years in the future, there those words were once again. His one and only. Baku didn't know how to react but to stand there, staring blankly up at the display, the camera centred on the empty stage where his cousin once stood.
Far away, he felt the gentle touch of Kuguru's hand on his shoulder, trying to nudge him back to reality but ultimately failing. Far away, he felt that hand slide away and somewhere in the back of his mind he was urging himself to turn and grab it, to smile at her and say it was alright, that he was fine. But he didn't. He simply stood, lost in his memories and in thoughts of his cousin.