Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V franchise.


She's an entirely different person.

Or Shun is an entirely different person.

They don't fit anymore.

It's something Shun has noticed since they were reunited – she's different, in a way that has nothing to do with parasitic mind-control bugs or months of captivity in enemy territory.

Maybe they're both entirely different people.

Maybe they can never fit together anymore.

Oddly the thought doesn't terrify him the way it used to. Once, Shun would have given the world to go back to the past, to the way they used to be, Before it all fell apart. Today, the idea of being unable to reconnect with Ruri the way they were Before isn't a heartbreaking revelation.

It's nearly a fact, the cold and impersonal way Shun pinpoints the moments they started drifting away from each other.

It started with Dennis.

It started Before the world crumbled, back when it was just the two of them in a too large house with too many conversations never spoken. Things were normal then, happy. Content. Stagnant.

The world laid at their feet and the future was easy to see.

Things would be simpler if Shun cared for material items and pretty titles. Things would be simpler if Shun knew anything about his little sister and what she wants in life.

Things would be simpler if Shun wasn't strangely relieved that he and Ruri have drifted apart.

It's like looking back on a well-worn picture, a fond memory to linger on when it's a rainy day.

He could only watch over this growing distance between himself and Ruri now that the war is over.

Things were never the same when they came back to Heartland. There was no magic left. They had nothing in common.

(They didn't know how to trust anyone – each other – anymore, he confessed to Dennis once. The morning was unusually bright and colorful.)

They were two strangers living in a house and making food together and inviting friends over. The image is all they have.

The blood on his hands is sometimes the only thing that reminds Shun that it wasn't always like this. The invisible stains underneath his fingernails taunt him with the memory of Before.

Before the war.

Before Akaba Ray.

Before Dennis MacField.

Just a boy and a girl in house meant for a family, the world at their feet.


Self-explanatory au of "What if Shun really rescued Ruri?" with the twist that it's not much of a happy ending. No Yuto this time, maybe the next au prompt.