EDIT (DECEMBER 15, 2016): Changed ending one day after publish.
December 14, 206: My notes are at the end!
Kurosaki Shun's emotions were currently running a treadmill, and they didn't know when to stop.
Sitting heavily down on the sleeping bag he'd claimed as his, inside the Resistance's base, he placed an elbow on his knee and his chin on his palm. After another unsuccessful attempt to get his best friend to come inside, Shun had found himself trekking back up the stairs by himself in the bitter cold.
How Yuuto dealt with it in a short-sleeved formal shirt escaped Shun's comprehension.
Ruri, his beloved younger sister, had desperately tried to get the boy inside, but Yuuto had blatantly refused and had instead chosen to sit on the steps halfway to the Resistance base out in the biting cold of Heartland's bitter winters.
"Any luck?" Ruri, presently standing above him with her red Resistance cloth swishing around her legs, gazed down at her brother with concerned pink eyes.
Shun sighed heavily and stood, shaking his head. "He won't come inside."
Ruri muttered something under her breath, probably a curse, and pounded her fist weakly against her brother's chest. "Why? Why does he insist on giving himself pneumonia?"
"He's a strong one, Ruri," Shun attempted to reassure his sister. "I'm sure he won't catch anything-"
At that moment, another Resistance member burst through the front door in a flurry of cold wind, red scarf fluttering behind him. His eyes were wide and harried, and his spiky brown hair was in complete disarray.
His relief was palpable at the sight of the two Kurosaki siblings. "Shun! Ruri! Yuuto's missing, he's gone!"
The last thing that could be heard as the two rushed out the door, duel disks on, was Shun muttering, "he better not be pulling a Tenjo Kaito on us, or he's as dead as those Academia soldiers!"
~~xx-00-xx~~
Yuuto tucked his Dark Rebellion back into his Extra Deck and stood, letting the cool winter breeze wash against his bare arms and ruffle his hair and cloak. He felt at home in the cold. It was his favorite environment, and winter was his favorite season. It was just his nature. So when Shun had asked him why he had decided to stay out here in the freezing cold, he'd responded with an indifferent, "I like it."
Starting down the drab, dust-streaked stone stairs, Yuuto could see over the wall of Heartland to the ruins beyond. His eyes narrowed in slight anger, before he realized what he could do with his rage and quickly tore his gaze away.
Sighing, Yuuto continued on his way, the unwanted memory of the conversation with Shun soaring back into his head.
"Shun, why am I lying here? I thought we were on that supply run..."
His friend scratched his head and avoided his gaze, which was unusual for the Raidraptors duelist to do. He answered all questions with utmost honesty, except for ones relating to the entire fiasco about Heartland.
"Trust me, you don't want to know."
"Yes, I do, Shun! Tell me!" He grabbed Shun's wrist in a death grip, the boy's startled gold eyes locking onto his grey ones.
"Fine..."
That was when Yuuto had learned about how they'd encountered the Academia soldiers on the supply run. One of them had flaunted and boasted so loudly about their annihilation of Heartland, that Yuuto, having kept his emotions cooped up too long, had snapped and had torn them apart with Dark Rebellion, destroying much of the surrounding area. Then he'd gone on and had raved about destroying everything, while successfully collapsing five buildings and nearly killing Shun. He'd been knocked out by a piece of debris before he could reach the Resistance base.
After the golden-eyed boy had finished the story, Yuuto was absolutely horrified, and he agreed with Shun's earlier statement.
He was better off not knowing.
Yuuto cursed under his breath as he heard approaching steps, diving behind one of the bushes lining the steep staircase, and watched as the Resistance member trudged past, heading towards the base. Then he waited until the teenager was gone before continuing his way down.
He'd become another solo agent against Academia, just like Kaito had. He'd fight their damned soldiers and take out his own vengeance without hurting anyone he knew and loved.
If Yuuto hadn't been knocked unconscious, he might've ended up murdering everyone inside the base, and that would mean the entire Resistance, the refugees, and his other friend Kurosaki Ruri. He might've taken out the only remaining population of Heartland, and Yuuto wouldn't even know.
He stumbled as his feet hit the flat ground, nearly tripping as he did. Dust clouds rose and flew into Yuuto's face, and the wind once again sent dirt blowing across the ground around his shoes. Crumbled blocks of stone and twisted metal support beams were scattered at both sides of the abandoned road before him, and with a forlorn expression, Yuuto set off.
He wove through the desolate streets of the ruined city, studiously ignoring the ruins scattered on either side of him. The crushed bits of Heartland's Heart Tower were prominent this close to the once-mighty structure itself, the colorful heart itself caved in and the bright reddish-pink bits now nothing more than colored dust.
Yuuto stopped in front of the house that was once the Kurosakis', about five miles from the Resistance base. Endurance came with being a rebel fighter of Academia, so they could usually go all around the Heartland wall's interior, which was roughly 25 miles from the top to bottom.
Yuuto was about to take a step forward, when, without a warning, his head exploded into pain.
~~xx-00-xx~~
"Yuuto!" Ruri's shrill voice echoed through the ruins. "Where are you?"
Shun, behind her, called out his own version. "Yuuto, dammit, get back here! We have to get back before nightfall, or we'll get lost!"
No response, except for the whistling of the wind that was studiously picking up.
"Let's head close to the Heart Tower, and then see where he might've gone from there," suggested Ruri. "Yuuto couldn't have gone that far."
Shun's eyes lit up at the mention of the Heart Tower. "He went to our house!"
Ruri's brow furrowed. "Our house is ruined...OH! He went to the ruins!? But why? It's dangerous, because debris from the Heart Tower is really prominent there, and it's all sharp and jagged from the metal. Not to mention the shattered glass over there..."
"Yuuto's not stupid, Ruri," Shun patted his sister on the shoulder. "He knows that the medical supplies will be saved for those who need it, he won't injure himself on purpose!"
"Alright, nii-sama," agreed Ruri, setting off at a brisk pace. "We need to hurry, or nightfall will come. We can't worry the other Resistance members."
~~xx-00-xx~~
What is this? Yuuto was thoroughly confused, wondering why was he in a vast expanse of black nothingness instead of in the ruins of the Kurosaki household.
It's me, of course. Another voice, slightly higher pitched and so, so familiar, yet Yuuto didn't recognize it.
Who're you?
The answer was annoyingly cryptic. Your only friend.
That's not right...I have Shun and Ruri and Kaito and Sayaka and Allen...I have friends... Yuuto's mind was swirling, confused, and in utter disorder.
No, you don't. All you have is me.
No...I have...Ruri... Who were those others he had just been thinking about? Yuuto felt like they were on the tip of his tongue, yet he couldn't remember. At least, he had the name of one of his friends.
No one else? The voice took on a surprisingly gentle tone, masking the mirth underneath that he could barely hear. I thought you had so many.
Why...can't I remember...my best friends'...names?
Because, the voice smoothly replied, I'm your only one.
And a name came back to him.
Zarc...that's the name...
...of my only friend...
~~xx-00-xx~~
"Yuuto!" Ruri exclaimed with relief as she spotted the familiar crop of spiky lavender-and-black hair kneeling before the ruins of their home, the structure itself stripped of its glory. "Are you okay? Why did you run off like that?"
Yuuto didn't reply, keeping his back turned to the two Kurosakis and his eyes purposefully trained on the ground.
"Yuuto?" It was Shun, concerned golden eyes inspecting his friend. His palms were on the ground, his fingers cut and bleeding from the glass littering the dirt roads. "What's wrong?"
The boy's head turned to face them, and the sibling pair immediately saw what was wrong.
The steel grey eye they could see swirling with the emotions Shun knew Yuuto had tried so hard to hide, a single tear running down his cheek. What spooked Shun was that there was no recognition in that grey abyss.
But the other eye, it was glowing with a harsh light, the edges tinged with blue and giving off an insane edge. What Ruri could only describe as pure anger radiated from that hellish, steely gaze as Yuuto's mouth opened, harsh words that hurt to hear coming from the depths of his throat in the most timid of voices.
"...who are you again?"
Should I write more, for each Dragon Boy or continuing this? I dunno. This is supposed to be a oneshot with no particular intention. I just felt like writing that ending. XD. It's not well developed or anything...
Review...?