…a door loomed over him through the dense gray fog. Kaito walked towards it, ignoring both the chasms on either side of him and the way the narrow path was crumbling away at the edges. The chains that hung across the door clinked, as if disturbed by the breath from the door's toothy mouth.
The Emperor 's Key was heavier than it looked. It burned Kaito's chest through his clothes, and the chain it dangled from bruised the back of his neck. He touched it, feeling the heat sting his fingers.
He stood before the door, and looked up into its terrible yellow eyes. They had no pupils, or irises, or any discernible feature; they cast an eerie yellow light that did nothing to illuminate the path, and instead made all the shadows look deeper and darker by comparison.
Kaito put his hand on the door. It was not stone, but slightly moist and soft, like flesh.
"Whoever opens this door will obtain a new power, but in exchange, will lose the thing that is most important to them."
He reached for the Key around his throat. He reached out towards the keyhole …
The sounds of Heartland City at night kept Kaito awake long after Haruto fell asleep. The motel room was cast in faint light from the billboard across the street, which advertised cheap liquor. The greenish glow made Haruto look even sicklier than usual. Kaito lay there, and wondered what he and his brother would do when the money ran out.
They had two weeks left at the motel; Kaito had had the foresight to book a month's worth in advance when the lawyer had warned him it might take time to resolve the problem of inheritance. Well, the problem had been resolved, all right, but not at all the way Kaito had hoped it would.
He stroked Haruto's hair absently, and thought of getting up, of calling Orbital 7 for a report, of filling out another round of applications in the hope he could find some work, of emailing the law firm again, of scooping up his sleeping brother and riding somewhere far away, far enough that all their problems could be left behind.
"Kaito."
Kaito determinedly stayed still. He'd already learned that responding only encouraged him.
"Kaito," Astral, as the floating blue creature called himself, said. "I need to speak to you."
He kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling. There was a pattern of cracks there that almost looked like the Little Dipper. Once upon a time, Kaito had spent hours pasting plastic glow-in-the-dark stars to Haruto's ceiling so that he wouldn't be scared of the dark anymore. Now he was the one who was too afraid to sleep.
Everything had changed.
"I know that you can hear me."
Beside him, Haruto stirred. Kaito scowled and adjusted the blanket over him.
"Fine," he whispered. "But keep your voice down."
"It is imperative that I collect the Numbers so that I can regain my memory."
"I don't have time to waste collecting cards right now."
"I have been sent to this world for an important mission."
"What mission?"
"I cannot remember."
"Then how do you know it is important?"
"The Numbers will wreak havoc on your world as long as they are left unchecked."
"That's unfortunate," Kaito said. "But I have other concerns."
"Your ideas are shortsighted."
"Excuse me?"
"If this city descends into chaos due to the Numbers, your brother will be in danger."
Kaito swallowed.
"My brother is already in danger. Getting involved with you would only make it worse."
"You were entrusted with the Key for a reason."
"The person who gave me this Key is dead," Kaito snapped. Haruto rolled over beside him, and he lowered his voice. "What he wanted doesn't matter anymore."
Astral frowned.
"My existence is meaningless until the Numbers are collected," he said. "Therefore, I have no choice but to continue to try to convince you to carry out the task."
"Try as much as you like." Kaito's eyelids were heavy; he closed his eyes. "I have no intention of changing my mind."
The few hours of sleep Kaito managed passed in an instant; when he woke, the room was cast in gold instead of green, and his d-gazer was beeping at him. The screen flashed SCHOOL in red letters. He rubbed at his eyes and then shook Haruto's shoulder until he woke.
He stared blankly at Kaito for several seconds, and then transferred his gaze to the ceiling. He reached up, wiggling his fingers, grasping at something only he could see. He spent more time like this than not, lost in his own world, gone to a place Kaito couldn't follow. Kaito was terrified that one day he would be trapped in the waking dream.
But when he nudged Haruto gently, he turned to look at him. Kaito sighed with relief.
"Haruto. It's time for school."
"Nii-san."
"You have to get up now, okay?"
Haruto didn't respond, but he did sit up and swing his legs over the side of the bed before going back to staring off into space.
Kaito handed him his school uniform, rushed him into the shower, and waited for him to finish getting ready. While the bathroom was occupied, Kaito dressed himself. He used the grimy mirror hanging from the motel room door to check that his tie was hanging straight, and that his hair looked clean and like it had been brushed. He packed both their school bags, and tucked Haruto's lunch — a container of plain rice and half an apple — into his. Perhaps today would be the day that Haruto would eat something without Kaito or Orbital standing over him and forcing the food down his throat.
As Haruto emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, his shirt on backwards, Kaito glanced around the room and realized that Orbital was late. Again.
Useless bot.
He fixed Haruto's shirt. Then he handed him his bag, grabbed him firmly by the hand, and started walking him to school.
They walked for forty-five minutes, with Kaito's heart in his mouth every time they crossed the street. Orbital could have driven them both, but as the bot was technically still his father's property, Kaito was loathe to advertise that fact that he hadn't handed him over to the new owner.
When they arrived, Kaito deposited Haruto in the hands of the teacher and began his own trek to school. It went against all his instincts, to leave his brother with strangers in a public place and to go waste his time learning material he'd mastered already, but their case worker had been very clear about how conditional Kaito's custody of his brother really was. He could not give them any reason to take Haruto away.
So Kaito went to school. He sat through his classes. He completed the high jump. He swam. He spent lunch alone, reading Orbital 7's report on his tablet between sips of his water (there had only been money for one lunch today). He ignored his classmates, the few that still tried to speak to him. Rather than learning calculus and English, Kaito learned that Rei Shingetsu owned one third of a bar called BARian, which was closed and which appeared to have never been opened. He learned that all three of the psychologists who had certified his father sane were free of any kind of scandal. It seemed they'd genuinely believed he was in his right mind.
Well, his father had fooled Kaito. He supposed it was unreasonable to expect a stranger, even a well-trained one, to stop the madness that had obviously lurked, well-hidden, in Dr. Faker's mind.
By the time the final bell rang and Kaito could escape, he'd found no new evidence to use in his fight to overturn the will. Disproportionately exhausted, he started to walk back to pick Haruto up. He was calculating the cost of dinner when he heard his name. There were three middle school students — their uniforms were Heartland Academy ones— watching the high school students dueling in the schoolyard nearby. One of them was pointing at him.
"…Kaito Tenjo."
"Is he famous or something?"
"Didn't you hear? He transferred to that high school two weeks ago, and he beat the Heartland City Champion — that kid there, with the red hair — on his first day! In one turn!"
"I'm gonna duel him!"
"Yuuma, no!"
"I'm gonna kattobing!"
"Yuuma, hold on a — never mind."
Kaito turned to walk away, before he could get dragged into dueling, but the kid was too quick. He caught Kaito by the arm.
For a moment, Kaito was certain that the Key burned as it had in his dream, and he saw the number 39 emblazoned in red light on the kid's arm.
"Hey, will you have a duel with me?"
"No."
"Aw, come on! It'll be fun!"
Kaito resisted the urge to snap at him. He doubted he would ever enjoy dueling ever again.
"Leave it."
"This boy has a Numbers." Astral had reappeared, floating with his legs crossed over the kid's head. "Duel him."
Kaito resisted the urge to glare at him; it wouldn't do to be caught glaring at nothing.
"Please? Tetsuo bet I was too chicken to duel anyone really strong. You gotta help me show him how wrong he is!"
"Kaito," Astral said.
Kaito yanked his arm out of the kid's grasp. "I have better things to do. Go duel someone else."
He heard a gusty sigh behind him as he turned the corner towards Haruto's elementary school.
"Fine, be that way!"
It was pointless, Kaito thought to himself. Even if he had wanted to duel, the only deck he had with him was the one from Dr. Faker. And that one Kaito had no intention of ever using again.
"The one Numbers you have collected will draw other Numbers towards you."
"Go back into the Key," Kaito muttered. He was almost to the elementary school, and he didn't want Astral encouraging Haruto's habit of staring at things that weren't there.
"If you will not help me collect the Numbers because of your brother, perhaps I should ask your brother for his help, instead."
"Astral." Kaito stopped. He turned and looked into Astral's mismatched eyes. "If you even speak one word to my brother about any of this, I'll throw the Key into the harbor. Good luck collecting the Numbers from there."
Astral disappeared immediately.
Satisfied, Kaito passed through the school's front gate and looked around for Haruto. He normally waited for his brother on a bench outside, alone. He had yet to make any friends, but as he never complained about being lonely, and friends would have presented an unacceptable security risk, Kaito didn't concern himself too much about it. If Haruto survived, he would have his whole life to make friends.
Haruto wasn't in the courtyard.
Kaito went inside, checking each classroom as he went. He ran into Haruto's teacher, who assured him Haruto had left class on time and had been in the courtyard the last time she'd seen him. He checked the boy's bathroom, which was empty, and then the girl's bathroom, which contained a middle aged administrator who gave him a very sharp look.
Haruto wasn't in the gym, or the locker rooms, or the lunch room. He wasn't behind the school. Kaito checked out front again, just in case they'd missed each other, but he wasn't there either.
"Orbital 7," Kaito said into his watch. "What's Haruto's location?"
"Yes, Kaito-sama! Haruto is…uh…he's…the tracker doesn't seem to be working…"
Haruto must have blown it out during his last episode, Kaito realized. And of course Kaito didn't have the parts to replace it. But school had only ended half an hour ago; he couldn't have gotten far on foot.
Unless he'd been kidnapped.
Unless he'd wandered out into the road again, as he sometimes did.
Kaito stared at passing cars, imagining his brother wandering into traffic in that absentminded way he had, imagining him dead in the road, imagining him sitting in the middle of a crater surrounded by wrecked cars…
If something happened to Haruto, they would take him away.
To foster care. And then to a hospital, when they realized just how sick he was. And then no doubt to a lab somewhere, when they realized Haruto was dangerous.
And then he would never see his brother again.
Ever since Haruto had first fallen ill, Kaito had taken care of him. While his father eschewed spending time with Haruto in favor of experimenting on him, Kaito had promised himself that no matter how much Haruto changed, he would always love him. If this new version of his brother never smiled, and whispered about screams, and had no memories of happier times, he was still more important to Kaito than life itself.
That love was all Kaito had. That love was all Kaito knew. If he wasn't good enough to take care of Haruto, literally no one was.
"Orbital. Start checking the city's security footage for Haruto."
"But Kaito-sama, that's illegal! If we get caught —"
"Then don't get caught." Kaito cut the connection and started running.
It was unlikely his brother had gone home. Ever since they'd been evicted, the new owners had increased security tenfold, and Kaito suspected that the guards had been instructed to keep a lookout for the Tenjo brothers. If Haruto had made an appearance there…Kaito probably would be contacted.
And if he was being held against his will there, Kaito wouldn't be able to break in as casually as he had the first time. So it was best to exhaust all other possibilities first.
Haruto had never been allowed out of the Tower alone, and he'd only ventured out supervised a handful of times in the last few years. There had been two trips to the candy store for his favorite caramels, the ill-fated visit to the Air and Space Museum that had ended with them sneaking out through the service entrance, a fruitless visit to a specialist who had insisted there was nothing medically wrong with Haruto, the funeral —
There had been no body at the funeral, only a symbolic casket. Kaito had held Haruto's hand while the coffin was lowered into the ground, and as soon as the last shovelful of dirt was heaped over it he'd taken his brother away. He hadn't been able to stomach having to make conversation.
The funeral! Haruto hadn't said much over the past two weeks, but he had asked twice where their father was.
Heartland Cemetery was a small, grassy oasis on the outskirts of the city; it was surrounded by concrete walls and shaded by old oak trees. It was mostly empty at this time of day, and Dr. Faker's grave was deserted. Kaito looked around, but he couldn't see Haruto anywhere.
There had been no body at the funeral, only a symbolic casket. Kaito had held Haruto's hand while the coffin was lowered into the ground, and as soon as the last shovelful of dirt was heaped over it he'd taken his brother away. He hadn't been able to stomach having to make conversation.
"Haruto!" Kaito glared at his father's tombstone. This was all his fault. "Haruto, where are you?"
No one answered.
"You have lost your brother."
"Not now," Kaito said tightly. He stared at Heartland Tower.
"Protecting your brother is extremely important to you."
"Either make yourself useful or leave."
"If you did not have to protect your brother, you would be more willing to collect the Numbers," Astral replied. "It is to my benefit if you do not find him."
Then he disappeared again.
Kaito sucked in a breath. His chest hurt. He couldn't expend any energy on Astral now. Haruto needed him.
He started towards his old home.
How had it all gone so wrong? Why had his mother left them? Why had Haruto contracted a mysterious illness that made him blow up everything around him and stripped him of all his emotions? Why had his father gone on an expedition with the promise of a cure, only to go missing and end up presumed dead?
Why was it that everything Kaito thought he had grasped happiness, it was wrenched away?
I have to find him, he thought. No matter what, I have to —
"Caramel."
Kaito froze at the sound of his brother's voice somewhere nearby.
He looked around wildly, and didn't see him at first. The square in front of Heartland Tower was crowded, and Kaito craned his neck, pushing people out of his way, praying his brother would speak again —
"Okay, one caramel and one chocolate coming right up!"
There was a man selling mochi ice cream. And there, in front of his stand, was Haruto — holding onto the hand of the kid Kaito had refused to duel earlier.
"Here." The kid handed the seller some money and handed Haruto a bowl. "Try it! It's really good."
They sat down on a bench together. Kaito expected Haruto would sit there and watch the mochi melt, as he did every time Kaito tried to get him to eat. But Haruto watched the kid devour his mochi in two huge bites, and then picked up his own. And bit into it.
"So, what's your name?"
"Nii-san."
"That's kind of a weird name, isn't it?"
"I want Nii-san to eat this caramel." Haruto took a second bite out of his mochi. "Then, maybe he would feel better…"
"Tell you what." The kid patted Haruto on the head. "When we find your brother, I'll buy him a mochi too!" He frowned. "Although it would really help if you could tell me his name. Or your name."
"My name…" Haruto said. "Why is everyone laughing?"
"What?"
"Why won't they scream?"
"…because…it's not Halloween yet?"
"I like Halloween. Nii-san always brings me candy."
Kaito realized he was smiling. Haruto had just referenced the past. It was like a curtain had lifted, just for a moment, and the old Haruto had peered through.
"You're so lucky! Nee-chan is on this health food kick and it's just sugar free everything, everyday, even though I told her that I'm still growing and —"
"Excuse me." Loathe as Kaito was to interrupt his brother's first attempt at social interaction in years, the sun was starting to set. He needed to get them both home if he was going to accomplish anything tonight.
"Hey! Did you decide you wanted to duel me after all?"
"I'm here to pick up my brother."
"Your brother…?" The kid blinked. "Oh! This is your brother?"
"Yes. He wandered off by himself after school. I've been looking for him."
"I found him hiding under that bench there." The kid shrugged. "He wouldn't tell me his name or anything, so I just figured I'd wait with him until someone found him…"
"Thank you."
"No problem. My name's Yuuma Tsukumo."
"Duel me."
"What?" Yuuma blinked. "Really?"
"I don't like to owe anyone anything. You wanted a duel. I'll give you one."
"Yes!" Yuuma jumped up onto the bench and threw his arms into the air. "Take that, Tetsuo! Who's a weenie now?"
"Nii-san."
"Finish your ice cream, Haruto." Kaito said, smirking. "This won't take long."
"Don't count on it!" Yuuma slapped on his d-gazer. "I'm going to kattobing so hard, you won't even believe it!"
Kaito unfolded the duel disk he'd been carrying in his bag. His regular deck was still in his bedroom at Heartland Tower, so he would have to use the Photon deck, but that wouldn't pose a problem. Whoever had put it together had studied Kaito's dueling style.
"You should be able to defeat a duelist of this caliber easily," Astral said.
Kaito didn't look at him. He had known the moment he challenged Yuuma that Astral would appear, since Yuuma had one of the Numbers cards. It would serve him right if Kaito collected Numbers 39 and then ripped it in half.
He met Yuuma's eyes across the field as the AR link activated.
"Duel!"
Kaito had never had dinner at a friends' house before
Until tonight, it had never occurred to him that this might be a gap in his education.
"This is going to be great, if we have guests Akari will have to let us have a real dessert!"
This was a free meal, he reminded himself. And Yuuma had already proven he could get Haruto to eat ice cream, so it was worth seeing if he could work the same magic on dinner. Besides, he'd sent Orbital 7 out to continue to collect information on Rei Shingetsu, so it wasn't like the evening was being wasted.
"So, uh, what's with that blue guy?" Yuuma asked. "He's still there, even though I took my d-gazer off."
Kaito blinked, and then followed Yuuma's gaze to where Astral was floating angrily behind them. After Kaito had easily defeated Yuuma in a three turn duel, Astral had tried and failed to take Yuuma's Numbers, and instead of disappearing to sulk like Kaito had hoped he would, he had elected to trail behind him like a glowing, irritable shadow.
He had not thought it too odd that Haruto could see Astral, even though no one else could; it was the least of the weird things Haruto was able to do.
"You can see me," Astral observed. "Another anomaly, in addition to your ability to use the Numbers without being affected. Despite your weak dueling, you merit further study."
"Hey!" Yuuma said. "I'm not a weak duelist!"
"That offer to drop you in the harbor still stands, Astral," Kaito said. "Leave."
"If you will not gather the Numbers yourself, you should entrust the Key to this Yuuma," Astral said. "With my assistance, we should be able to win duels."
Kaito suppressed his reflexive refusal. It wasn't a bad idea. In the week since Astral had first appeared, he'd already met two Numbers duelists, and the distraction of constant challenges wasn't one he could afford.
And yet…his father had left the Key and the Photon Deck — a deck Kaito had realized was obviously designed to hunt Numbers — to him. There had to be a reason. Kaito wanted to believe that his father, even if he had been distant and distracted, hadn't abandoned them completely.
"I'll consider it."
"Um…" Yuuma looked confused, but he didn't ask any more questions. "This is my house. Come on in, I'd better tell my parents we're having people over…"
The Tsukumos lived in a slightly rundown house in an older part of the city. Their furniture was well-worn, but the house was brightly lit. It evoked dim memories of childhood, back when Kaito's mother had been present, and he had had nothing to do except play with his brother and tinker with his father's tools.
A young woman — presumably Yuuma's sugar-banning older sister — made them sit down and brought them drinks. Yuuma went upstairs.
"Hot chocolate okay? I just made some."
"That's fine." Kaito accepted a mug full and handed the other to Haruto, who stared into it blankly. "Drink, Haruto."
Haruto stared past him at Astral. Astral stared back, and then mimed drinking. Haruto drank.
"I hope you like chicken, because my dad is going through one of his phases, and that's all he's cooked for, like, two weeks. Uh, can I get you anything else?"
"No, thank you."
"So, how do you know Yuuma? He's never mentioned you before."
"We met today. He found my brother while he was lost."
"Ah, ran off, did he?" A voice boomed from the stairs. Kaito turned to see a man who looked exactly like an older Yuuma come into the room. "Yuuma once climbed onto the neighbor's roof. Took us an hour to get him down, too."
"Dad!" Yuuma bounded down the stairs behind his father, followed by an orange-haired woman who must have been his mother. "No one needs to hear that story!"
"Introduce us to your friends, dear," Yuuma's mother said. "I'm Mirai, and this is Kazuma."
"Right, this is Kaito Tenjo, who's really good at dueling — he has this awesome dragon — and this is his brother, Haruto, who likes caramel and Halloween." Yuuma pointed at each of them and flopped into a seat with a mug of hot chocolate. "Is there any dinner?"
"Tenjo," Kazuma said. "You wouldn't happen to be Dr. Faker's sons?"
None of Kaito's investigations had turned up the name Kazuma Tsukumo.
Kaito had been his father's sole confidant and his only assistant on every project he'd worked on after Haruto's illness — except for one. The one that had led him to his death. Kaito had been monitoring all the business interests at that point, so if Kazuma had met him in a professional capacity, there would have been no reason to hide it. Which meant…
"I'm sorry for your loss. I understand your father…" Kazuma cleared his throat. "It must be very difficult for you."
"…I need to speak to you privately." Kaito said, in a voice that he meant to be steady but that revealed all his sudden, surging anxiety. Kazuma knew something.
"Yuuma, why don't you show Haruto the attic," Mirai murmured.
"Right…Haruto, come on…"
The room emptied, and he was left alone with Kazuma.
"I need to know exactly how you knew my father."
"Kaito — "
"It's important."
"There's not much to tell. We met, briefly, last year. He wanted to hire me. I couldn't accept the job."
Last year. Last year his father had been planning the expedition. "Hire you for what?"
"I can't tell you."
"You can't, or you won't?"
"I won't." Kazuma sighed. "I'm sorry. It's better if no one knows."
Kaito swallowed a mouthful of curses and threats. Kazuma looked serious; Kaito could try and force his hand, but if he were caught doing it it would be the end for him. He knew, instinctively, that he was right there on the edge of an answer, and he couldn't get at it.
"Please. My father…" Kaito choked. "My father rewrote his will, right before he left on a secret expedition. He left almost everything he owned to a man named Rei Shingetsu. Do you know him?"
"No."
Kaito pulled the Key out from where it hung beneath his shirt. "Do you know what this is?"
Kazuma started. "Where did you get that?"
"My father mailed it to me before he disappeared, along with a Duel Monsters deck. It's the only thing he left to me in his will. My brother is dying —" Kaito hadn't meant to say that. "My father was looking for a cure. You're the only person I've met who knows anything about what he was planning."
"Your brother?" Kazuma frowned. "When did he get sick?"
"Three years ago."
"Three years ago…yes, that fits."
"What fits?"
"What I'm about to tell you, you cannot tell anyone else," Kazuma said. "I'm an archaeologist. Your father contacted me because we had a shared interest in parallel worlds."
"Parallel worlds?"
"Other dimensions that existed alongside ours. Your father believed he had found a way to access one."
"You believe it's possible to go into other dimensions?"
"I already have."
"What?"
Kazuma shook his head. "It was an accident. But after that, I was able to…well, I discovered several historical sites that were related to a dimension that exists alongside ours. When your father found out about my work, he tried to convince me to join him on a secret expedition. He wanted to open a door to the other side and communicate with the people that lived there."
"And you refused."
"My first journey there nearly killed me. I had to think about my family — what would happen to them if I died? But your father was desperate. I was worried that he would go too far, so I gave him that Key."
Kazuma paused, and stared off into space in a way that was eerily like Haruto.
"They gave it to me when I crossed over."
"That makes no sense." Kaito said flatly. "What does the existence of some other dimension have to do with my brother's disease?"
Kazuma looked uncomfortably at him.
"There's something else, isn't there."
"He'd done it before," Kazuma said. "He'd communicated with someone in another world."
"You're telling me aliens from another world made my brother sick," Kaito said. The more he thought about it, the less ridiculous it seemed — hadn't he seen Astral, who was obviously not a human being, with his own eyes? Hadn't he seen cards that could control people and restore memories? Hadn't he seen his sweet, kind, playful little brother turn into someone who reveled in screams and blew things up when he was upset?
Hadn't Dr. Faker withdrawn completely from Haruto's presence after he fell ill — almost like he couldn't stand to look at him — almost like he felt…guilty?
You should have told me, Kaito thought. You should have let me help you. We could have saved him together.
Now Kaito would have to save him alone.
"It's started, hasn't it?" Kazuma stood up. "The chicken should be done. I hope you'll stay for dinner."
"Who exactly gave you that Key?"
Kazuma inclined his head in Astral's direction. Then he left Kaito in the living room.
He was gripping the Key so tightly it was cutting into his hand.
"You will collect the Numbers now," Astral said. It wasn't a question.
"If it's for Haruto, I'll do whatever it takes," Kaito replied. "And in exchange for my helping you, you're going to answer all my questions."
"Very well." Astral looked him in the eye. "We have a deal."