SAME
Writing's not my forte. Constructive criticism appreciated, as are editing suggestions. Yes, the scenes don't match up. This was written on memory and will power alone.
Warnings: AU, genderbend, YuyaxYuzu (Fruitshipping), present tense, language
Yuto realized Yuzo was male, but it's hard to tell when your dimensional counterparts have your face exactly.
Yuto knew right away. He's always had a steady head on his shoulders, so he figures out early on that there are different dimensions and that there are people who look like him within those dimensions. Seeing Ruri's face in a secluded warehouse, angry and ready to fight, only throws him for a second. Seeing Ruri's face on a distinctly male body though...that takes a bit longer to digest.
He's intrigued of course. Hiiragi, Yuzo is definitely male, but there can be no mistake that his face is Ruri's face. Yuto is so used to breasts, that seeing none makes him want to stare.
He resists. Yuto has more class than that, even if Yuzo is a guy and staring is thus not as bad. The duel is tough, but nothing compared to what he's faced in Heartland. Once the cards are set, Yuto ends things quick.
Still, the power of Ruri's face is strong, and there are too many moments during and after the duel that he forgets. Forgets that Ruri is not here; that Yuzo is not his precious friend. He even forgets, once or twice, that Yuzo is not female. His gentle touches and "I don't want you to hurt anymore" are probably much creepier than he's intended them to be. The embarrassment won't settle in until after Yuzo's bracelet does its pink light show, spiriting him away before he's aware anything has changed.
Yuto was only the start. After that came Shun, and a whole different can of worms were opened there.
"Ruri!?"
Shun can't believe his eyes. His little sister, out of the clutches of Fusion, alive and free and - taller? His initial relief is lost as he takes in the physical differences. Even without Yuto's punch, he can see them clear as day. Shorter hair. Broader shoulders. A wide flat chest. It's so odd seeing Ruri as a boy that Shun barely reacts when both he and Yuto are sent away.
"I know," says Yuto to him afterwards. "It's weird, isn't it."
Because it's Ruri's face, but it's not Ruri's body. Yuto's known Ruri for years, but Shun's known her since birth.
Shun nods silently, freaked out by the miracles of other dimensions, and wishing more than ever that Fusion had never set its slimy foot in Heartland.
After them, the rest come one after the other. Yuya finally meets Yuto. Sora disappears. Then they meet Yugo. Then Yuto sort of disappears, leaving Yuya a dragon and a headache.
It isn't until the Maiami Championships that things get even stranger.
Serena's arrival brings up new problems no one had anticipated. Yes, Akaba, Reiji as well because he hadn't realized something like being different genders would fail to stop Hiiragi, Yuzo when he's put his mind to it.
"Y-you - your face is the same as mine!"
Yuzo's eyes are wide in shock, and his legs feel a bit weak. He's heard from Yuto about Ruri, a girl from Heartland with a face just like his. It is weird. A little creepy if he's being honest because Yuzo is comfortable as a guy so seeing himself with boobs is disorienting in a sense of self way.
"You're Ruri, aren't you?" Yuzo steps toward the other girl. "Yu...Yuto told me about you. We have similar faces. You must have escaped Fusion - "
"I'm Serena."
"Huh?"
They talk, and Yuzo realizes he's jumped to conclusions. Serena is a soldier from Fusion and she supports their cause wholeheartedly. Yet she's never been sent to the battlefield.
When Yuzo tells her what he heard from Kurosaki, about the destruction of Heartland and the mocking enjoyment of Obelisk force, she vehemently denies it all.
"But...Kurosaki told us about it. Those Fusion soldiers, they were smiling. It was a game to them."
Serena shakes her head. "Of course not. Fusion's goal is a noble quest. There's no way they'd be so careless about the invasion."
It's frustrating that she won't believe him, but he has no proof. If only she could talk to Kurosaki...
Suddenly Yuzo gets an idea. A crazy idea. Serena...he can tell from their exchange that she knows nothing of how Fusion's Xyz invasion really went. They're so similar...She's helping hurt people for fun and if she knew the truth she'd never forgive herself.
He can't let it go.
He has to let her know that truth.
"Swap clothes with me."
"Huh?"
Yuzo actually isn't any taller than his dimensional counterpart. Shun's misconception had come about because of Yuzo's relatively wider frame. Yuzo has wider shoulders, but he is exactly the same height as Serena. That much is painstakingly clear as Serena's skirt comes up to the same location on his thighs as on hers, and he desperately prays that no one (especially not Dad or Yuya) ever see him like this. Her shirt pinches across his shoulders, bumps up strangely in the front, and the jacket is just too tight. He doesn't have enough hair. It's not perfect, but they don't need perfect. The change in outfit should be just enough to fool everyone for a few seconds, maybe minutes if they're careful.
"Go," urges Yuzo. He smiles. "Make sure you find Kurosaki."
Serena stares at him hard. She's not sure about any of this, but she's willing to listen.
They part ways, and it's the last time she'll see him for a long while.
"What are those fools doing!? They need to protect Serena!" Nakajima yells at the screen. Frustration lines his every feature and he's one moment away from tearing at his hair.
"No..." Reiji cuts off his tirade. "That is not Serena. It is Hiiragi, Yuzo."
"HUH!?"
It is subtle, but Yuzo moves all wrong. His gait is awkward and uncertain, with none of the angry feline grace of Fusion's powerful female soldier. Granted, half his uncertainty can likely be attributed to Yuzo's foray in a skirt.
Reiji watches while mentally shifting his battle plans. Hiiragi, Yuzo. At the very least, he has impressed Reiji by surprising the CEO. He pulls off Serena's uniform quite well.
Yuzo's first meeting with Yuri is the last one he'd like to have ever. The Fusion soldier is merciless and skilled. He cards Olga, Halil, and even his Obelisk Force comrades on the field without batting an eye.
Yuri, to his credit, manages to hide his surprise well. Dennis has informed him of Yuzo and Serena's little swap, but even foreknowledge is nothing compared to reality. To see is to believe, and this is absolutely a sight to behold.
"You really do resemble Ruri and Rin." Yuri remarks.
Yuzo truly did - to a scary degree. If he didn't already know the person before him was Yuzo, he'd have thought he was looking at Serena.
Yuzo jerks back in shock. Ruri? Rin?
A sinking feeling forms in his heart. Yuri, unlike Yuto, is not an ally. He needs to get away.
Yuri gives him a smile infinitely more sinister than anything he's ever seen from Yuya. "I need to bring you back now. Are you going to come quietly or will I get some entertainment from this?"
Yuzo involuntarily takes a step back.
"Oh." Yuri's smile is nothing short of predatory. His arm lifts, duel disk springing to life. "Duel me."
Yuzo backflips, Action card grasped between his lips. It's a rare show of acrobatics, but nothing too unexpected from the heir of You Show Duel School. He flips until he is a good distance away, and a little more after that.
Yuri watches in amusement, a terrific smirk on his face as if Yuzo's a bug and everything he does is cute in its futility.
He looks uncannily like Yuya, but Yuri has none of the other's compassion or spirit. He terrifies Yuzo. He duels relentlessly. There is no mercy in his game, and Yuzo feels it as a pressure threatening to drown him in its wake. It's difficult to focus when his hands shake with fright.
More than ever he wants to see Yuya. Wishes his best friend was by his side.
Action card, activated!
Yuzo runs.
The dude he's accidentally picked up from Standard is totally creeping Yugo out. The dude's face is exactly like Rin's and his personality is kind of similar too.
They've been talking for awhile. It's surprisingly easy to get along with Not-Rin - like talking to Rin, but different. He tells Yuzo about City, about growing up with Rin, and their dream to enter the Friendship Cup. His heart gives a little twinge for her, but Yugo holds it in, reminds himself that Rin's not gone, not if he's still alive to find her.
This invariably leads to them discussing dimension travel. Yugo's dragon has been leading him along thus far, but Yuzo's bracelet has never actually moved Yuzo anywhere. Just the Yuya counterparts.
"Eventually your bracelet is going to work again, yeah? We just have to figure out how."
"But that's the thing," Yuzo exclaims. He throws his hands up and paces back and forth. "I have no idea how it works."
"Aw, c'mon!" Yugo scoffs. "You gotta have some idea. Clear Wing Synchro Dragon glows whenever we're about to go. He takes me where I need to go next."
Yuzo glares back at him in frustration.
"It just glows whenever Yuya's close and about to meet one of you!" Standard boy throws his hands up. He's steadily working himself into a stupor. "There's no sure pattern!"
Yugo watches wordlessly. He has no idea what to say to that because while he was also confused his first time dimension crossing, he at least had a purpose to anchor him: finding Rin. Yuzo's just lost.
"I don't know where I'd start trying to figure out how to activate it. I-I'd need Yuya and-and Yuya isn't here..."
Suddenly, all the frantic energy drains out of Yuzo. He crumples down and Yugo stares uncomprehendingly until he realizes Yuzo's shoulders are shaking because he's made the other boy cry.
Sniff. Hiccup. Sob.
Awkwaaard. Yugo fidgets then reaches into his pockets until he finds what he's looking for.
"Er...sorry 'bout that, man."
Yuzo sniffles again, ears red with embarrassment, but he takes Yugo's offered handkerchief quietly. Yugo says nothing. Standard boy's eyes are so red (as is his nose) and Yugo tries very hard to push away the slimy feeling clogging his chest. It's the same as he gets whenever he's made Rin cry. This whole situation is seriously too crazy.
It doesn't hit Yuya until long after, when he finally has a moment to breath and think, that Serena is a mind blowing concept. It happens in his hotel room at the Friendship Cup. He can't leave and there's no one to talk to, so he finally sits down and thinks for a moment, mind wandering to anything and everything.
Yuya grew up with Yuzo, close as brothers, comrades in arms. They're best friends. They know each other better than they know themselves. Now that he has a quiet moment, it's dawning on Yuya that Serena could basically be summed up as "Yuzo with boobs". To be fair there are more distinctions between Serena and Yuzo than that, but at a crude level that's exactly how they relate.
Headstrong, tough as nails, opinionated Serena embodies all the core traits that make Yuzo such a precious friend to Yuya. They are passionate, determined, skilled, and clever. Similar people with similar faces.
And that's a problem. A big one.
If he's being honest, Yuya finds Serena attractive - for a variety of reasons, not least for her face. If he finds what's essentially a female Yuzo hot, then he probably finds Yuzo hot too.
Yuya sits in silence, letting the epiphany sink in, and then he finds the word he needs.
"Sh*t."
It is the only description he can think of for this predicament.
It's not enough that Jack Atlas' beat down has given him a self identity crisis. Now he's having a reality-shaking sexual orientation crisis too. It's not really an appropriate time to be having them, but is there ever an appropriate time for either? Yuzo is attractive. Yuzo is attractive. A lot of past situations and emotions are suddenly making a lot more sense to him. Everything's clicking into place faster than he can keep up with, yet he's more confused than ever. When did Yuzo become attractive to him?
Principal is definitely going to kill him for this when they get back to Standard.
Omake:
"You are to capture and return Serena to Fusion."
A hologram pulls up, and Sora gapes in shock.
"No matter how I look, that's too creepy."
It's a girl in one of the Academia uniforms, yet Sora is very sure he's looking at Hiiragi, Yuzo's face. Except the last time he was in Standard, Yuzo had been male and quite happy to be so. Sora has only been gone a few days at most. Was that really enough time for Yuzo to change genders?