Yuya seemed to lose himself more and more as time went on, slowly finding it harder and harder to focus.
He supposed it started when he met Yuto...when the boy so much like him yet so wary of everything and everyone, disappeared in his arms. He'd saved Yuya, shielded him from a deadly blow...and vanished as a consequence. All Yuya had of him was the card he'd been given…
...Or so he thought.
Yuya soon noticed the quiet fury that simmered within him at the use of Fusion, the strange sadness that welled up as Kurosaki refused to acknowledge or even look at him time and again. He tossed and turned through terrible nightmares of a burning city, watching helplessly as people vanished into cards before his eyes...and then he would wake in a cold sweat with an icy feeling of fear pulsing throughout his body.
And then…
...Then one day he'd turned to Yuzu and thought Ruri instead.
And not long after...that Duel…
Yuya couldn't remember winning. All he knew was the fearful silence of the watching crowd, the blatent fear written on Kachidoki's face.
...And the fast fading traces of an unimaginable rage within him.
Yuya was scared.
…
Once again, far too soon, Yuya couldn't remember another Duel. This time...he was told of what had happened, what he'd done.
He'd harmed others through Dueling.
And Mieru...she'd told him…he held another soul within him.
Yuya now knew of Yuto's fate.
It was worse now, now that he held three souls, too many souls.
Yuya's psyche was a constant battlefield, an unending fight to stay himself.
He could hardly look at Yuzu now, far too often he would see Rin, or Ruri in her place. Yuya hated it, and when he did see Yuzu...he was afraid of her eyes, of the look of doubt he was certain he'd see.
He was certain she and the others had noticed his slipping grip on himself, on his sanity.
Yuya found that the wind on his face was an overwhelming comfort now, one that brought to mind all of the Riding Duels he...no, Yugo had won. His temper was shorter as well, something that he detested.
He could still remember the hurt and confusion in Rin's...Yuzu's eyes when he'd snapped at her once…
And many, many times, Yuya would close his eyes...and recall moments of wistful daydreams, and countless wishes to the night sky.
...Yuya also found that it was so much harder to stay still.
And the moments when he would completely lose himself to anger and fury...were more frequent.
Yuya was afraid. He was afraid of his own mind...afraid of the influence of Yuto and Yugo's souls upon it...terrified of how much he was slipping.
He was struggling, struggling to hold tight to his own memories and push away theirs...questioning whether the thoughts in his mind were his...or those of the souls within him.
Yuya was slowly drifting apart.
And then came the pain, after he'd won one final Duel...watched the only remaining person with his face vanish in a blinding light…
...Yuya could only scream, both mentally and physically, but even that did nothing to help with the splitting agony ripping him apart within his mind.
Four souls, four souls all fighting within him for dominance...Yuya was cracking, unable to hold the scattering pieces of his mind together...
Sudden pleasure in pain, the sudden cold of Yuri's nearly emotionless being chilling him from the inside out, and terrible memories of destruction wrought by his...no, no...Yuri's hands with a cold smile upon his lips...Yuya fought it with all he had.
But a warring mind joining with another already so broken…?
He didn't stand a chance.
Yuya shrieked with agony as everything crashed down upon him, engulfing him in bitterness, loneliness, anger, confusion, a flood of unfamiliar memories...and the all consuming urge to reduce everything to ashes...to grind the world to dust.
Yuya, Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri….they all shattered with a hellish scream of furious pain.
"We are one."
Yuya was lost.
O_o...I don't even…
This just came out of nowhere to slug me a VICIOUS right hook to the face after I stumbled across a fanfiction…
More specifically: Chapter 6 of sketched-daydreams's Across the Dimensions fanfiction. This was inspired by that chapter...so...yeah. (It's a one month 200 word Challenge that focuses on the characters of Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, and a very good fic that I recommend.)
I've been wanting to try my hand at a more psychologically centered One-Shot for awhile now...and this seemed like a good opportunity to make an attempt...and as this is my first try at this sort of thing, I'd really appreciate reviews telling me what you all thought of it. :)
Hope you all enjoyed this One-Shot!