Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh Arc V or any of the franchise, characters or plots.
He could not find it. That much was apparent to Yuya as he sat watching as he ate the pancakes his mother had lovingly made.
"Could you wear a different colour? I think I have a silver scarf that would go lovely with your eyes," Yoko offered. She barely got a glance in return.
"No." Followed by an ever polite and present, "Thank you."
"If it needs to be red," Yuya begun, "I'm sure that we have another-"
"It needs to be my one," Yuto replied. His voice was as calm as it ever was, his methodical searching too. Yet, if Yuya focused hard he could detect a subtle air of almost panic building up around his Xyz counterpart.
"Well, where did you last see it?"
The woman received no reply as Yuto all but dissipated from the kitchen as he moved on to the next in his search, seeming very much like the phantoms in his deck only with a barely noticeable limp. Yoko's lips tightened, less likely from anger than concern. As far as Yuya knew, Yuto had been dashing about all morning in a frantic search for his lost scarf all the while seeming bewildered for how he could have lost it in the first place.
Yuya chewed thoughtfully on a forkful of pancakes. He knew that both his mother and father had developed a growing worry over his Xyz counterpart's incessant need to wear the scrap of cloth, typically tied around his upper arm.
"You haven't seen it anywhere, have you Yuya?" his mother asked as she turned back to washing the pans she had used to make breakfast.
The boy shook his head. He glanced at the plate of cooling pancakes beside him that had yet to be touched by the only one of his lookalikes who was currently up and present in the house.
The Sakaki household had taken in his three counterparts, offering, at the very least, food and shelter on a temporary basis. The prospect had been considered to some degree by Yuri and to an even greater one by Reiji, the latter deciding it would be best for the Fusion user to experience a more traditional household. There the relatively stable life could help Yuri adjust from his days raised as nothing more than a child soldier. Reiji, in his distrust of good things staying good, also trusted Yusho to monitor the Fusion counterpart of his son for any psychotic tendencies. Yuri had taken the offer out of both curiosity and what Yuya suspected was a deep inner desire to belong to something more than just an army.
Yugo, an orphan and boisterous in general – Yuya was not surprised when the Synchro duelist took to Shuzo like a fish to water or Performer Pals to dueltaining – had all but jumped at the chance to have siblings and parents and be forced to share things with more than just Rin and the other orphaned children on the streets. He had promptly burst into tears when the offer had been made, overwhelmed by the mere suggestion. In the following days, he had been under the feet of everyone as he rushed through chore after chore in an attempt to please his hosts.
That enthusiasm had, by now, declined somewhat. He, however, still leapt to do the bidding of Yoko and Yusho with whatever they asked, eternally grateful. The Synchro user's joy was furthered by the fact that Yoko had requested he tinker with the family car which was starting to sound like more trouble than it was worth.
Rin had likewise been enthralled when Shuzo and Yuzu had taken in her and Serena, the latter still debating whether to treat it as a temporary place to stay like Ruri and Shun did. Yuto, despite having an open invitation from the Sakaki household, flocked between the two places like a migrating bird.
The Xyz duelist had bonded with Yuya during their time spent closer together than most people. The former had sealed his instinct to protect his counterpart upon taking the first blow for who had then been a stranger, and now that Yuya was housing with one of the more violent Fusion users… Yet Yuto had also formed stronger bonds with two others. That much had come to light even before the three Heartland inhabitants had spent in hospital, quietly discussing their desire to return and help rebuild their homeland.
Both Yuto and Shun had been injured, like most of them, in the final battle against Zarc when Yuya and his counterparts had stood against the crazed duelist before Ray had made the briefest of appearances to end it once and for all. It was this atop the shock of having a body once more and previous injuries respectively that had convinced – or more accurately forced – them, along with Ruri, to stay at least until they healed. Although, as Reiji had pointed out, said healing would no doubt extend beyond the physical.
It was telling that, despite Yoko and Yusho's kindness, it was Shun the fourteen year old former Resistance member sought out. Whether it was a memory or nightmares or nightmares of a memory, it was the older Xyz duelist that Yuto turned to for comfort and security. It was even more telling that Shun, already extremely protective of his little sister and wary of letting her out of his sight, was riddled by anxiety unless both his chicks were nestled safely beneath his wings.
The first time that Yuto had silently switched nests in the night, back when his leg was still significantly hobbled by the impressive gash from a stray shard of glass, Yuya remembered his parents had been two shades away from frantic. Yusho had been glancing into the darkened room to check on his sleeping son, along with one of his counterparts – Yuri slept in a separate room to his other counterparts, not in the least because Yugo went into a rage at the thought of sharing with that 'kidnapping effeminate bastard' and Yuto had flat out refused to allow either himself or Yuya to so much as turn their back on the Fusion user; Yugo slept in a separate room because he snored almost as badly as Yuya did when his nose was clogged, not that it stopped the Synchro user from somehow making his way into someone's bedroom during the course of the night like a magnet attracted to companionship – only to find that one of the two beds were empty. It had not been a pleasant realisation for the dueltainer. The memory of Zarc attempting to consume his son driven berserk by darkness in an another attempt to destroy the world had been too fresh, was still too fresh as Yuya shuddered at the unwanted memories.
Needless to say that Yoko had been more worried about the boy injuring himself further during his escapade. She was a mother first and foremost, and a strong one at that, proved as she dropped a hand onto her son's head and ruffled his vibrant hair to draw him out of the dark hold in his mind.
Placing another forkful of pancake in his mouth, the young dueltainer allowed the memories of glowing eyes to fade in the face of mouthwateringly good food.
He turned his thoughts back to empty beds and Xyz duelists. One of the first things Yoko had done was call Shuzo. It had turned out to be the most logical decision of that near panicked night, the father of Yuya's best friend – and perhaps something more than friend – reporting that he was now housing six teenagers, not five.
The incident and the others that followed was a subtle indicator to all that those of the Xyz dimension were not planning to stay permanently in the Standard world apart as part of two new families. Shun in particular had been vocal about returning, but had been bullied into submission by his little sister who was aided by Yuto's comparatively quiet logic and Reiji's resources.
It had been sealed when Shun had attempted his first bid for freedom from his hospital bed and promptly collapsed, resulting in a laughing Sora and Serena, an exasperated Yuto and a fierce scolding from Ruri. The bird's wings, as Sora had said undaunted by a yellow glare, had been clipped. At least temporarily. Like Yuto and Yuya, Shun was now able to walk around with little difficulty. Unlike either of the younger two, he did so whilst weighed down with a great bitterness.
Yuya finished off his breakfast under his mother's watchful gaze. By now Yuri had appeared, sitting with a small pot of tea at the end of the table sipping away at a cup with all his refined mannerisms carefully in place.
Yugo, against all expectations, had risen with the dawn and eaten then. The blackened pans and something that Yuya was sure was toast – as well as the lingering smell of smoke in the air – were evidence of the Synchro user's disastrous attempts at breakfast. His boisterous counterpart was likely now in the garage or another in the town, either tinkering away or watching others tinker with engine containing things that excited him. Most likely he had dragged Rin along. The two were near inseparable, despite how often she walloped or whacked or kneed the blue haired boy. Like with Yuzu, her affection seemed to be shown best physically.
Either that, or all of the reincarnations of Ray were somehow preprogramed to deter Yugo's foolishness with whatever was nearest, whether it be a fist, fan, knee or an over-protective older brother. Sweet as she was, Ruri was certainly capable of using every resource at her disposal to enact her will when she would not accomplish it herself.
Yuya was just glad that it was mainly Yuzu who took a more direct approach to his own foolishness, and even then he was simply glad that she was there to do so.
Sighing as he shoved the ghost of his former anxiety over her absence aside, the young dueltainer all but licked his plate clean of the crumbs and syrup that dirtied it. He watched as Yuto dashed back into the room, still frantic. Perhaps he should help look for the-
"Sit and eat before your breakfast goes cold," Yoko said, beating her son to any action as she gripped Yuto by the shoulders and directed him to the seat beside Yuya. "Yuya can look for your scarf in the meantime."
Yuto did not seem pleased by the proposition, but there was little he was willing to do as Yoko hovered over him like a certain yellow-eyed sentry he had grown used to over the years. He turned beseeching grey eyes to Yuya who shrugged. What could he do against his mother except obey?
"Where have you looked?" he asked.
"Everywhere."
"Have you tried outside, in the garage perhaps?" Yuri asked from where he observed them over his teacup.
"Yes," came the careful reply. "But I should look ag-"
"Eat," Yoko insisted, heaping some of the extra pancakes she had made onto Yuto's already piled plate.
"Yeah," Yuya agreed. "I'll look in the outside and if it's there I'll find it." He gave a large smile not eclipsed in the slightest by the shadows that had haunted him over the past year. "Trust me!"
With that, the red eyed boy left his Xyz counterpart to struggle over the dilemma of eating the food as fast as he could to continue searching or savoring it as he had with every other home cooked meal he had missed in over three years of war.
Yuya was adamant that dueling was only meant to bring smile; it was not meant for war. And neither were boys, no matter how matured in nature.
He wondered how Sora was faring.
Clearing his head from thoughts of the child soldier – the blue haired boy would be back soon enough from his visit to the Fusion dimension, most likely to take up the same offer that had been extended to him as Yuya's counterparts – he refocused on the task at hand. In other words, finding Yuto's missing scarf. What was so important about that scarf that it sent Yuto, the seemingly most infallible – if most full of deep set anger – of all the Yus, into a near raging panic for someone so typically stoic? What was it that made the grey eyed veteran unfailingly wear it each day? What…
Or more helpfully, where?
Yuya dragged his thoughts back to his assigned task – the task he had promised to do – once he reached the back door of the garage and entered. There were boxes stacked up against one wall, a partially deconstructed D-wheel in the center whilst a glimpse of the family car's wheels could be seen through the partially opened garage main door. Most of the mess was undoubtedly Yugo's: nuts, bolts, wrenches, wire, spare parts, odd parts, parts that once belonged to something that, if it had been working before, had no hope of working now unless Yugo welded them back in place. On a cursory glance, however, there was no standout red scrap of material.
Yuya grimaced. It was time to get searching despite all the oil and grease. He was only lucky that it was the weekend and he did not have school today. Or any important event, really, with the state in which Yugo left everything save his treasured D-wheel.
After what seemed like a long while and having rummaged through half a dozen boxes – how would have Yuto's scarf ended up here anyway? – the Lancer felt another presence beside him, as familiar in an otherworldly way as it was slowly growing more familiar in the corporal sense. As fast as the Xyz dueler was, he would have had to inhale his food to escape Yoko that quickly. Or at least chewed really, really fast.
A few more minutes passed in silence now born of companionship and two driven mindsets. It could have extended further, would have in the confines of that garage had Yuya's personality not been preset to make words out of everything from nothingness to the thoughts in his head at the time.
"Why do you need it so badly?"
'Why do you still wear it even though the war is over?' was what Yuya wanted to ask, but the question would seem inconsiderate at the very least. Yuto seemed to sense it in any case, looking over his Standard (although Yuya was anything but standard) counterpart with an analytical and carefully guarded grey gaze. He gave no answer, however, merely turning back to the boxes he had been riffling through.
A short while passed and Yuya sighed.
"I don't think this is working," he said, rubbing the back of his head.
His more solemn counterpart sat back on his heels and regarded the boy.
"You've searched everywhere, right?"
A nod.
"And that hasn't worked."
Another nod, perhaps a tad more wary.
"Well, why don't we try a different approach?" At no forthcoming disagreement from Yuto, Yuya continued. "You don't usually take it off." In fact the dueltainer could count on one hand the number of times the scrap of red cloth had been absent from his counterpart's appearance. "So when do you last remember taking it off?"
"This morning. I was having a shower," Yuto answered.
"Did you have it after?"
Yuto shook his head, the deep frown on his face a ghost of the one he had bourn when Yuya had first met him. "I was about to tie it one when I was opening the door and Watt and En burst in. I spent at least ten minutes trying to get them out from underfoot. When they finally left, I couldn't see it anywhere."
That gave Yuya pause. When En had been a puppy he had developed a bad habit of stealing Yuya's socks which he had deposited everywhere from his basket to the still wet floor of the shower. Watt was also a guilty culprit in the thieving of clothes department. It was not a far stretch that one of the two had stolen the red cloth. If that was the case, it really could be anywhere.
Yuya only hoped it was not buried in the garden. Or chewed to pieces, which would be infinitely worse.
"What is it?" The question came sharp in Yuto's low voice.
Yuya rubbed the back of his head once again. He gave a sheepish grin. "I think one of the dogs may have stolen it."
Yuto blinked.
"They sometimes do that, you know," his Standard counterpart continued. "They steal my stuff all the time."
Yuto blinked again.
Yuya fought not to take a step back even as a wash of nervousness crashed through him. Yuto was not Zarc or Leo Akaba or Roger; he would not hurt him. He would not hurt him.
Yuto blinked again. Then let out a huff of annoyance.
"This is why I don't like animals," the Xyz duelist muttered. It was a half lie if anything.
Yuya knew from the stories Ruri had told him which she in turn had heard from her brother that at the very least Yuto had almost caught hypothermia from falling into a near frozen pond in the middle of winter trying to save a frog. A frog. 'Never mind that it could swim,' Ruri had said. 'It gave him one pitiful look and he left Shun alone up on the pond's bank swearing his head off.'
Don't like animals, indeed. Yuya almost snorted to himself. But stories about frogs did not solve the current conundrum they were in regarding scarves and dogs. En trotting past into the house with a red cloth dangling from his mouth, however, did.
"Hey!"
Yuto was off like a shot, his running gait disturbingly silent and his shouting uncharacteristically loud. Yuya trailed after him at a slower pace. No doubt his Xyz counterpart would catch up with the dog and retrieve his stolen possession without his help and despite his lingering limp, although the condition of said possession and dog would be in at the end of the chase was questionable. Then again, Yuto had leapt into a freezing pond to save a frog.
All in all, Yuya felt that at least En would get out unharmed. That was something, at least. But why was Yuto so concerned about the scrap of red cloth? Even if it had been the symbol of the Resistance, the war was now over and the Resistance – Heartland having no need for it – officially disbanded.
Entering into the house once more, Yuya closed the door to the garage and worked his way to where Yuto had chased En up the stairs. A knock several minutes later at the front of the house had him hastily changing direction.
"I'll get it," he called bordering near typical Yugo volume.
The Lancer opened the front door and blinked when he saw the Kurosaki siblings standing before him.
"Hello," he said somewhat mutely under Shun's scrutinizing yellow glare as he backed several steps away from where Ruri had placed herself right in front of the door.
"Who is- Oh, hello Shun. Hello Ruri," Yoko said as she came to see who had come calling to the house. "What can we do for you?"
"Hello Mrs. Sakaki," Ruri said pleasantly. "Is Yuto here?"
"He's currently chasing the dog," Yuya broke in before his mother could. All persons standing in or near the entrance gave him a look that spoke volumes of what they thought of his ridiculous outburst. "En stole his red scarf."
Was he imagining it or did Shun's lips twitch upwards slightly in amusement at that?
The Xyz duelist in question fingered the familiar splash of red around his neck. His battered trenchcoat was nowhere in sight; a battle it seemed Ruri had finally won. Instead he sported a grey jacket – not unlike the cardigan Yuya had seen in Yuto's memories, although the article of clothing was far more befitting of a veteran of a brutal war – with a dipping collar that revealed the tips of a new tattoo atop the left side of his chest. It was a symbol that Yuya knew all too well from witnessing the seventeen year old duel time and time again.
On his arm hung the other Kurosaki bird whose overall disposition was infinitely more content. She smiled shyly at Yuya – who would have known that those same lips could have shamelessly set an enraged Shun on Yugo when he had almost broken her treasured hairclip? – and more widely when Yuto came into sight, his limp a little more evident after the exertion his still healing leg had gone through.
Moving away from her elder brother, the girl stood beside the lavender-black haired boy. Her deft fingers took up the red cloth he had been trying to tie around his upper arm, the same red cloth that she had used to hold back her hair. The slender digits moved the fabric with the same familiar surety as if it had been one of her cards.
"There," she smiled.
It was possible that a faint tinge of pink settled over the darker skin of Yuya's Xyz counterpart. "Thank you."
It seemed to Yuya as though Shun's eyes had begun to glow a little upon watching the scene, almost a warning yellow signally one's impending doom should they continue on their path. Yet there was fondness in his gaze as well as the exasperation of one who knew that the relationship he was witnessing would never kick fully into gear if one of the two involved did not make a bolder move. Still, the veteran duelist did not seem eager to encourage such bold moves just yet.
None of this escaped Yoko's eyes or from being wrapped in a near breathless mutter of 'adorable' heard only by her son and a falcon's ears.
The taller Kurosaki fingered his red scarf once more.
"Are you ready?" Shun asked, directing the question towards his good friend, his more than simply good friend if what they had been through together – and apart – over the last three years had any implications.
Yuto nodded. As it always was between him and Shun, he needed little to no words to make himself heard.
"Where are you going?" Yuya asked.
"Home."
"To Heartland," Ruri answered at the same time as her brother.
Now it made sense, at least a small degree of it, as to why Yuto had been so frantic about losing his red scarf.
The hair prickled on the back of his neck as Yuya felt grey eyes appraising him once more.
"Will you come with us, Yuya?"
It was not so much an offer as a request, as though the phantom wielding duelist wished for his closest counterpart to see something of great importance.
"When are you leaving?" Yoko's question gave nothing away about her emotions.
"Now, if possible," Shun replied.
"How safe is it?"
"No one is hunted anymore," came what would have been a terse response had not one, albeit unusual, mother bird understood the needs of another mother bird.
"I want to go, mum," Yuya cut in, his eyes still locked with the grey ones of his counterpart.
"Then I will come with you," Yoko stated bluntly.
"Heartland is not a place for tourists who wish to see what the results of an inter-dimensional war looks like," Shun cut in, that familiar anger only now slipping into his voice.
"And we are not tourists," Yoko fired back. "My son has seen the ruins, has battled in them. And now you want him to go back."
"To understand," Yuto broke in softly.
"And I wish to understand as well," Yoko insisted. "I need to know at least something of what my son has seen, has experienced. I need to experience a little part of it myself."
"Mum…" The word trailed from Yuya's mouth at his mother's desperation to help her son well concealed as it was, but nevertheless startlingly there.
"My apologies," Shun finally said after a long moment's silence, bowing his head slightly.
"My husband will wish to come too," Yoko said. There was no room for compromise in her voice.
Ruri smiled at the thought of Yusho coming with them, a man she had admired before the initial attack from the Fusion dimension and even after, even during the battle of Zarc where he had pleaded for his son to return to him. Shun merely clenched his jaw. Whether it was due to frustration at what he perceived was intrusion on a private thing or simply being all but ordered what to do was not clear. He, however, conceded to Yoko's demand with another incline of his head.
"So long as we can leave within the next hour." There was no compromise in those words either.
The elder Kurosaki finally entered the Sakaki household now knowing that his trip would be briefly delayed. Ruri and Yuto flocked to where he stood, pulling him down with them onto the couch in the front room.
"I'll go and wake Yusho," Yoko said. "We shouldn't be more than thirty minutes. I forgot how much he likes to sleep in when he has nothing to do…"
The last part was muttered without the intention of anyone hearing, so Yuya did not make any comment. He did hide a small smile though. A sleepy-head or not, he was glad to have his father back. He turned to the three on the couch.
"Will you be staying in Heartland?" The question blurted itself out before Yuya's brain had a chance to filter it.
"It is a temporary visit," Shun said as Yuto shook his head, the words clearly paining the taller boy.
"My brother and Yuto are still healing," Ruri said pleasantly, although a great longing was evident in her tones too. There was also some slight berating too, directed towards Yuto who was rubbing his aching leg.
The boy sat up with a scowl as hard as clouds and red as a sunrise turned towards the younger Kurosaki. He then turned to fend off the older Kurosaki's probing hands, finally achieving victory when he poked Shun in his still tender ribs. This resulted in them both receiving a sound – and rare, at least from what Yuya had seen – thwack from Ruri. This, in turn, resulted in her rear suddenly finding itself on the floor as her brother all but kicked her off the couch.
"No fair!" she complained. "You're at least five times the size of me!"
"Two at the most," Shun said smugly as he sprawled across the length of the couch only for Yuto to push his legs off his lap sending the older Kurosaki down to the ground as well to Ruri's cheering.
"For someone who once claimed they were a bird, you have an intense attraction to the ground."
And that was how Yuto ended up on the floor too, Shun sitting atop of him glowering as fiercely as ever and En, the villain of the day, licking his face relentlessly.
Yuya watched their antics with a growing smile on his face. As wary as the three were of strangers, and even some friends, they were completely comfortable with each other, comfortable enough to let their usual guards down. The dueltainer felt that he was almost intruding on an intricately private moment.
He looked away, smile still in place, as the two Kurosaki siblings continued to bicker with Yuto interrupting every so often, usually to the detriment of Shun's ego. The raptor lover was not above returning the favour in kind however, and soon enough both of them were blushing fiercely to Ruri's raucous laughter. Even Yuya could not keep from loosing a few chuckles despite his efforts to stifle them. He was sure that he could also hear the dainty laughter of his Fusion counterpart echoing from the kitchen.
"What's going on here?"
And like that, despite the good-humoured nature of Yusho's tone, the quiet phantom and the guarded falcon were back in place. Even Ruri's cheer was reigned in somewhat, never quiet trusting of those outside their immediate circle of security. Still, her smile was kept in place as she looked shyly up at the man she admired. En stole the lapse in activity to take another lick at Yuto's face who did his best not to splutter in indignation from where Shun's arms still held him in place.
"Heel, En," came Yuya's firm words. They were ignored as the dog launched another attempt at his Xyz counterpart's nose. "En, heel!"
This time the words were heeded to some degree.
Yuya cried out as the small dog launched himself at his young master in joy. It was only Yusho's steading hands that kept the boy from toppling backwards to join the slowly untangling tangle of limbs that was Ruri, Shun and Yuto.
"He's excited," Yusho remarked as he ruffled Yuya's hair.
Yuya merely gasped from being winded by a small dog missile. He placed the culprit back on the floor and watched with some amusement as Yuto quickly stood and helped Ruri up, both leaving Shun to fend for himself to his irritation.
"Where's mum?" the young dueltainer asked, his smile drooping a little one corner when his father finally removed his hands.
"Sorting out a few things," came the answer.
And so the group waited a while longer. Shun managed to drive En away with both Yuya and Yusho's help, and then had proceeded glare at his two 'chicks' for the rest of the time. Ruri had lapsed into a conversation with Yusho about his experience in bringing smiles to those who watched duels, ignoring her brother. Yuya had soon been drawn into that conversation, leaving Yuto to reluctantly entertain En. That sight, at least, had brought a smirk to Shun's otherwise motionless face.
It was only after Yuri finally wandered out the door to greet a waiting Serena – who in turn would have greeted Shun with a punch had he not skillfully dodged out of the way; as it was Yuya was too slow and was promptly attacked by the manifestation of En's overexcitement as soon as he was down – and Yoko left a note for Yugo should he return that they finally prepared to hop between dimensions.
"Are you sure you know what you are doing?" Yusho asked once more, never too careful when his family and inter-dimensional travel were involved.
Yuto did not bother to spare him yet another glance from where he fiddled with his duel disk. "Yes. I've done it before with more success than that Reiji Akaba." There was no hard feelings there at all about his duel disk having been effectively stolen on the orders of said Akaba upon his apparent demise. "We should all end up in the same place. Alright. That should do it."
"Ready?" Shun asked as he grabbed ahold of his sister.
The Sakaki's nodded from where they stood together.
"Are you sure you want to come?"
Another collective nod. It was almost enough to make Shun's lips twitch in amusement had not thoughts of seeing his home for the first time since he had left it for Academia begun to riddle his mind with nostalgia and anxiety.
"Here we go." And Yuto pressed the button that would activate the portal that would take them from the Sakaki household to the ruined but still beating heart of the Xyz dimension in a bright flash of light.
Yuya opened his red hued eyes and fought back a grimace at what he saw. He felt his mother gasp softly behind him at the still present and extensive devastation before them.
They were standing in the middle of what remained of a one vibrant Heartland, a vibrancy that was slowly beginning to live again.
Several heads in the street glanced in their direction, more than several hands moving instinctively to duel disks before familiar red was registered as friend not foe. The group received a few nods – some more wary than others, as they would always remain – as the remnants of Heartland began about their business once more. Heroes the Lancers might be in the Standard dimension, as famous as Yusho was in Standard as well as the Xyz and Fusion dimensions, the survivors before them were heroes in their own right. They did not need to bow to those who had, for the most part, drunk only a sip of the brew that had been their struggle for over three years.
Still, comrades recognised comrades and soon the Kurosaki siblings and Yuto were being greeted by old friends formed through diversity and strengthened in battle. A mere nod of the head or meeting of eyes were all that was needed, much like how Shun and Yuto communicated so often in silence. Words were an excessive extravagance that few of the somber faced adults and older children indulged in.
It almost hurt, how little smiles there seemed to be in the war-torn city.
The group who had successfully travelled from the Standard dimension stood for a little longer in the street, gaining their bearings, taking everything in. In the case of Shun, Ruri and Yuto everything, from the piles of rubble to the half finished scaffolding around the house beside them was being drunk in at a mind-reeling rate.
Families were gathered in front of abandoned and destroyed houses, figuring out where to go now with their lives. Other individuals wandered the street in search of those they hoped would one day return their calls. Builders, both professional and not, argued over how best to piece back together whatever building they came across. Hard faced men and woman with duel discs tramped up and down the road as if waiting for something to happen, to disturb the tentative peace that was only now being restored.
And Yuya realised that whilst the Resistance had been officially disbanded, it was still unofficially on guard. It even seemed to have gained a blatant omnipresence it had always been just shy of during the war.
It was a curious and altogether disconcerting sight. Red was everywhere: on arms and around heads and across waists in brazen streaks coloured the same as the liquid that flowed as a life-force through every being. Yet not everyone wore it, even amongst those who were so obviously patrolling the streets.
"Only the fighters of the Resistance bear it as a mark," Yuto said softly, answering his counterpart's unspoken question. The grey eyed boy tugged at his own red scarf unconsciously as he stared at the rebuilding ruins of his home.
Yuya swallowed. He unconsciously shifted closer to his mother who in turn grasped his shoulders tighter. Yusho wrapped his arms around the both of them in a hug that reassured both of them that he was present and him that they were still there.
"It must be horrible to see your home like this," Yoko said, the first of the Sakakis to speak.
"It might be ruined, but it's ours," Ruri replied fiercely, the girl's chin jutting out in stubborn pride.
Her brother held her closer, shifting nearer to where Yuto stood alone. The older Kurosaki bent down to whisper in his best friend's ear. He received an irritated glance from Yuto who simultaneously unconsciously rubbed his leg.
"I'm fine," the grey eyed boy muttered and it was not hard for Yuya to figure what Shun had asked about.
"If you're sure-"
Another swift glare and Shun gave in. He remained watching over his non-blood related charge like a hawk, however, alongside his little sister.
Without another word, the trio began to walk as if following an invisible map inside all three of their heads. A half formed question fell from Yusho's lips, almost fell from Yuya's before both thought better of it. The friendly teasing they had witnessed that morning in their house was now gone, replaced by a strange melancholy lined with a spirit harder than concrete, certainly harder than the cracked fragments beneath their shoes.
Yuya trusted that Yuto, that Shun and Ruri would not lead them to danger. This same trust he knew was held by both of his parents. If the three did not want to be questioned, than so be it. Better to simply follow and so follow they did.
It was a long while before anyone spoke. They had passed row upon row of desolate houses, went down street upon street of slowly milling activity. Several of the larger places they had drifted past like the old stadium were full of tents for the refugees, the survivors of a horrible event left to rebuild what they once had and longed for again. Everywhere Yuya looked there were signs of a war that had once been and a people that still were. It was more than enough to distract him from his now aching feet.
"We are almost there," Shun said as he glanced over his shoulder to those who did not know the destination towards which they moved.
"You will see why those of the Resistance still wear red even though the war is over."
The words were soft spoken, as those from Yuto typically were.
And then, as they rounded the walls of a fallen warehouse, the true consequences of the Fusion dimension's invasion was revealed.
There were hundreds of crosses.
As far as the eye could see, they covered the ground in their hundreds – perhaps even thousands – and more were still being added to the macabre meadow made by men in more ways than one. It was enough to halt Yuya and his parents in their place, for a special sort of horror reserved for the witnessing of humanity's true capabilities to descend upon them.
But the trio who called this dimension, this ruined city home continued on picking their way through the field of markers carved from the corpses of trees. It seemed that this place, despite its sheer size, despite the sheer grief within its confines, was not what Yuto had been alluding to.
Not wanting to be left behind in that mournful place nor fail to see what the three young and war-wearied Heartland citizens had allowed him to, Yuya began moving once again with his parents trailing behind. This walk left the young dueltainer in a much more depressed mood than traversing through mere rubble had, the weight of knowing that lives had been lost, had been destroyed by dueling no less almost too much for even his optimistic persona to bear.
His small hand slipped into a larger, slender one. Yoko tweaked her lips down at him in both reassurance and comfort even as sorrow lined her face for her son, for the dead, for the three youths who walked in front of them. There were no words exchanged between the mother and child for it was not their place to talk, not here in the graveyard of people they did not know amidst the ruins of a place that was not their home.
So they simply followed, one whole family trailing behind another cracked but stable one.
It was a smaller grave sight than the one before that they came upon next. Less crosses. Less dead. But more red. Much, much more red.
The scraps of tattered cloth fluttered in the scant breeze that blew through the grey rubble and dreary wood. They moved through the dry air like arms drawing a final card, never yielding even at the very end, hoping, always hoping…
None of the three former Resistance members needed to say who it was that laid in those graves as they stilled before them. The Sakakis knew well enough, Yuya knew well enough on his own.
The young Lancer gazed aghast at the at the sight before him marking the fall of more who had refused to yield to the Fusion soldiers than he had imagined was possible. In that moment his mind finally computed that for each cross tied together by a red scarf a body – or the memory of one – laid beneath. He let out a little gasp, inaudible in the grief of the place, the stark magnitude of what it implied.
Another chocked gasp was muffled by the crimson material that spoke of more than just mere defiance, more than mere refusal to forgive. The sight was more than a memory of what had occurred and a useless monument to the fallen. It was a promise. It was an oath to the dead.
"Not everyone who was lost was carded or caught." Yuto's words were chilling even in their simple statement of fact.
"I…"
Yoko's trailed off. What could she say? What could any of them say to the three who best knew what the sullen field meant? The short answer: nothing.
"Most of them were placed here after the fighting ended," Shun said, drawing his two charges closer to him as if afraid that the angry and mournful aura of the place would claim them as victims too. "Not every grave has a body either."
"Did you know them?" Yusho asked solemnly.
"We knew some, but not all," came Ruri's softly anguished reply. "I think Kaito said that there's one for Yuto somewhere they put up before…"
She trailed off. The grey eyed boy beside her stiffened. Shun squeezed his friend's shoulders in an attempt to shield him from the less than pleasant memories of being dead or something akin to death, perhaps to shield himself as well from the thoughts of his friend ceasing to exist.
It made sense when Yuya thought about it. The red bearing crosses were for the fallen fighters and Yuto had fallen too. His soul may have been trapped in Yuya's body, but he had effectively been dead, at least in the terms that those of the Resistance had thought in. And for them, the fallen had to be honoured, had to be remembered and mourned. And so another of the red draped crosses had been created.
"All fighters who were lost got one," Shun said from where his chin rested atop purple-black hair. "Including those who were carded."
That meant that Yuto was not alone in bearing the knowledge that a cross stood upon his already dug grave, marking him as gone from the world of the living, as a ghost that was strangely corporal in body. But how many more cards had been ruined, rendered unsalvageable?
From the looks of the three before him, too many.
Yuya leaned into his mother, feeling the same comforting hand on his head that he had missed in his childhood. This was almost too much, was too much, would have sent him fleeing like a coward before the Supreme Dragon King – an unconscious shudder went through the Standard reincarnation of Zarc at the thought – and would have succeeded in doing so had Yuya not been asked by Yuto to witness this, had he not been asked to understand why.
"It is more than just trauma that drives us. We all bear marks of what happened, but the red scarf is not one of them," came a calm voice that Yuya was still having trouble adjusting to being on the outside of his head. "We do not wear it out of fear or anger or grief or pride – we feel it all, but it is not why we still wear red."
It was Ruri who continued in earnest with a resolute expression. "We wear it to remember what we swore to protect when we first put it on. That we swore to protect the people of Heartland and this dimension with our lives if necessary. That we swore to protect those who could not protect themselves from being hunted."
The red on the crosses seemed to react to the words, moving more vigorously as the wind conducted a more violent gust. In doing so, the flapping material stirred up the discordant and forlorn beat of hundreds of ghostly footsteps trudging towards that place beyond the universe itself. And still there lingered that adamantine trait in the dead's melancholic march.
"It is a reminder that no matter how far we were cut down we always had to stand up again, and it is a promise that we will always stand up again no matter what," Shun said. "We swore we would protect those in this dimension and that does not end because the Fusion users have gone home to their soft beds."
His anger rung out through the lifeless air like the clap of giant iron bells. There was no forgiveness in the sound and very little understanding, but there was less savagery than there once had been even if there was no less hurt. Yuya supposed that it would have to be enough. Even if it was not, how could he ask for more? This had been Shun's home and now it was covered in rubble and red. Smiles, while uplifting, could not bring the dead to life, and smiles made from the desire to hurt did not fade easily from minds.
The near fifteen year old boy sought solace in the fact that Heartland was slowly, painstakingly being rebuilt despite having rejected the help of the Fusion dimension to do so.
The wind blew harder against the small group collected near the start of the cemetery. Here it was blatantly clear that Shun did not bear his longstanding grudge alone. The red covered crosses carried it as much as the survivors. By now Yuya had learnt that such hatred, like taproots and tombs, ran deep. And once it ran that deep it was nigh impossible to eradicate.
"And while we wear red, we will not forget."
And like that, at those words, Yuya was reminded of the other stark hatred he had come to know over the past year. It was a subtle ember compared to Shun's roaring wildfire, moderated by a pacifist nature, but no lesser in its ability to burn through those that had dared tear its world apart, perhaps even greater as Shun had alluded to once before. Like Shun, like most in Heartland, Yuto had yet to forgive the Fusion dimension for their role in it all. Having felt that rage, that burning hatred, Yuya knew he likely never would.
No, there would be no forgetting what had happened, but perhaps it was not such a bad thing. Those who did not forget were less likely to make the same mistakes. Stupidity, the greatest stupidity was not learning from the past. His vast experience in dueling over the past year had proven that, and one could not learn what one forgot. So no, there would be no forgetting and for many in Heartland that meant there would be little forgiving.
It did not matter, Yuya told himself. So long as they moved on. So long as the pendulum, having swung as close to eradication as it could, swung back to the gentler point of healing.
He gazed back out onto that wooden valley, that potent place of angry dead and even angrier defiance. Yet it was a sorrowful place too, leaching the cheer from his soul in such a way that had Yuya once again pressed against his mother who in turn turned them both towards the family member they had so recently regained. The young dueltainer pressed his face into the warm, broad chest offered to him and, still being a boy despite everything he had been through, cried silently. Yoko too pressed her face against Yusho's shoulder, the tears in her own eyes leaking every so often from where they welled up.
Yusho held them closer, thanking every power in the universe for what he had found once more and silently swearing to never again abandon it willingly or not. He glanced out to the red hued space before him and held his immediate family closer still. A bout of cowardice that plagued even the bravest of men welled up inside of him and the man turned his gaze away to the only other living souls amongst the crosses.
And there the Kurosaki family huddled, two birds and an almost phantom barely breathing, lacking smiles as they soaked in the presence of each other in the face of what could have been, what almost had been – and in the case of a once ghost still was, however wrong – there amongst the wooden valley filled by red.
This place was not their home, not their true one lost too long ago. This place laid in rubble and ruins as far as the eye could see. But this place was theirs. And they were a part of it, a part of the scarlet legacy yet to be embellished by time. They were the red that flapped in the breeze on timber and arms and necks and hair. They were that red that had sworn an oath to keep with fading life. They were that red. And that red formed them. It shaped them to their core.
So yeah, this was inspired by a piece of fan art I saw of Yuto crouched amongst a bunch of crosses tied with the same red scarf the Resistance wears. Not sure who made it (would credit them if I did), but it is a very good piece of work.
Not sure about the ending or the quality of this though. I don't think I nailed Yuto's panic well in the first bit – not helped by the fact it was in Yuya's point of view, but ah well. And I wasn't too sure what to do with Yuri's character (thus he appears the least) as I haven't really seen him yet (only up to the Synchro arc technically) and apparently he harbors some psychotic/power driven desire to card everyone. But at the same time raised in such an environment as Academia and seeing how other people have interpreted him in their own fan fictions… Yeah. Anyway, hopefully I did alright for my first story in this fandom (I apologise if I butchered any of the characters or anything). In any case, I hope that you enjoyed this. Please leave a review if you desire – it would be much appreciated.