An ear-piercing shriek rang through the halls of Duel Academia, but no one heard him. At least…no one in the proper mind to rescue him. Regardless, he screamed.
"ANIKI!"
It was useless. Juudai, he knew, wouldn't come for him. Shou pushed his back against the wall, feebly holding his duel disk in front of him on a violently trembling arm, more as a shield than a weapon. He tried to swallow to remedy his dry throat, but all of the moisture in his body was occupied, rolling down his face in the form of tears.
They were getting closer. He wondered for a moment if the other students were playing a mean joke on him, acting like zombies because he was so easy to scare. Well…it was working.
"Duel…" they chanted, eerily monotone with strained-sounding voices. "Duel, Shou…Duel…"
He shrieked again, but to no avail. He was trapped, and left with only one choice. With shaking, unsteady fingers, he switched on his disk, crying a feeble "D-duel!" through his sniveling and tears.
He couldn't remember actually dueling them. Each one was a blur, a flash of light that burned his already poor eyes. He could feel his life draining away from him—perhaps because of the des belt—bringing him closer and closer to passing out on the floor. But he knew he had to stay conscious…something bad would happen if he fainted, he was certain.
He pressed his sweaty back harder into the wall, desperately hoping to support himself. He was beginning to feel nauseous.
"K-kyukyuroid, in atta…attack m-mode," he choked out, followed up with a cough.
Aniki…please come back soon…
The students weren't at all difficult to beat. He could polish them off without much effort, one after the other. But his energy continued to deplete, and each one, after falling on his face, was immediately on his feet again, groaning at him for another match. He clutched at the fabric of his blazer resting over his violently beating heart. They just…wouldn't…stop…
They're like…like zombies…
"Does it hurt, Marufuji-kun?" slurred one of the voices. He was too terrified to try and identify it. "Aren't you ready to give in?"
"Sh-shut up!" he choked out, drawing another card. He tried desperately to read it, but his vision was blurring; it was hopeless.
"Stop fighting it, Marufuji. Isn't there darkness in your heart?" The new voice was surprisingly clearer than the others.
"D-darkness…?" he huffed.
"What is it? What's holding you back?"
"I…I don't know what y-you're…"
"Could it be there's something that's special to you? Someone, perhaps?"
Sho's sightless eyes widened. A face, smiling, flashed in his mind.
This voice…who was talking? Was it one of the students? No…this was…inside his mind.
"Someone, maybe, who doesn't love you back…"
"Sh-shut up!" he cried. "Who are you? Get out of my head!"
"He likes someone better than you, doesn't he?"
"Who are you?"
A figure revealed itself. It resembled a child, but his bare body was illuminated with a soft orange glow. Shou squinted, trying desperately to determine if he was real.
"It's not fair, is it?" said the boy, smiling sadly. "You love him. You'd do anything for him. You worked hard to gain his friendship. He repays you by ignoring you, and fawning over him, whom he's grown to adore in less than a day."
Shou scrunched his eyes closed. The boy wasn't naming names, but somehow, he was able to associate every pronoun with a face.
And right now, Johan's wouldn't leave his mind.
"It's all his fault," the glowing boy cooed. "If it weren't for him, your precious person would still belong to you. You wouldn't have been pushed aside like trash for him."
"S-stop it…" Shou begged weakly.
"Why should he win his heart? What has he done to deserve his love? Surely, he couldn't come close to matching yours…"
"Please…" he breathed, barely audible.
"But he still chose him. After everything you did for him, he's the one he likes best."
Shou could no longer form coherent words. He just cried, trying desperately to maintain his consciousness.
"It's not fair, is it?"
No…it wasn't fair. The glowing boy was right. He tried harder and harder every day, but simply couldn't win Juudai's attention from Johan. Now matter how much he loved him…no matter what he was willing to do for him…his feelings were, and always would be, entirely unrequited. And it hurt.
It just wasn't fair.
"You know what you have to do, don't you?"
Shou looked up at the boy, his eyes blank and unfeeling. He couldn't hold on any longer. Or maybe…he was just tired of trying to.
His physical body hit the ground with a thud, but the boy remained in his sight, standing firmly behind his eyelids.
"They hurt you," the boy whispered, his voice coaxing and soft…comforting. "Give them what they deserve."
Martin's malformed hand passed over Shou's head, stroking his cyan hair.
"Kill them," breathed the voice in Shou's mind. "Kill Yuuki Juudai and Johan Anderson."