A/N: Sorry the first chapter took so long! I realised Yuugo was going to start appearing again so I waited until I had a better idea about the synchro counterpart of Yuzu and the synchro dimension – and then I got busy with uni-related things (though I edited/added some details after the latest episode). I figured this is far enough, so now let's see how much of my fan-theories are going to get derailed by future episodes (we're at two). It won't change the story either way – unless we see more of Yuuri's backstory in the next few months.
Contains elements of DM/GX, 5Ds and ZEXAL, and sort-of spoilers for Arc-V up to episode 55 (minor details that could have worked without, but if it's there, why not use it? :D).
Enjoy! And I won't promise a chapter within a month (because my and writing schedules don't usually work for very long), but I'll try! I think my muse has finally learnt it can't manage all the ideas at once, so that's progress anyhow…
How They Met Themselves
Chapter 1 – Yuugo
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He is placed in this world and he notices nothing missing, nothing changed.
In fact, he notices nothing much at all at first, except confusion. And black. But that's because his eyes are closed.
He opens them, then gasps. Everything above him glitters. It looks like a paradise.
But when he sits up, he realises it's a paradise built on a dump, and that both saddens and angers him, though he doesn't yet understand.
Later, he does. When some kids out playing find him and drag him to a middle-aged woman with stern eyes but a kindly expression. When she explains what this place he's woken up is. As she wonders, briefly, where his parents are. Wonders if they're dead – but she doesn't say that. That's him thinking, based on the flash of sadness on her face.
She is a kind woman, he thinks, to be sad about people she's never met, and for a boy she's seeing for the first time.
And she only becomes kinder. 'I have lots of kids like you,' she explains. And he has to agree on the "lots of kids" part. They're peeping around the door. Eight or so. There might be more, too. He can't see the one who carried him in – but he's already forgotten the face.
He's sure he'll remember later, when it's time to thank. And he will thank. They've alleviated his confusion, so that's something.
And it's about to be more than something.
Because the lady also offers him a home, with the others who've lost theirs.
And no-one thinks much of the fact that he doesn't remember where his home used to be.
At least he remembers his name. In fact, that's all he remembers. So he clings to it stubbornly.
It's Yuugo.
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He grows up in that house: Martha's place. And that's where he learns about Jack Atlas.
He's never met the man. He'd lived at Martha's place until…about four years before he, Yuugo, came. He wants to, though. And he's sure he will. Jack Atlas is more than a person he wants to meet. Jack Atlas is a goal. A hurdle he wants to surpass.
Jack Atlas is the only person who's lived like them to reach the paradise above the slums.
He wants to reach that paradise too.
And, to do that, he needs to become a duellist as strong as Jack Atlas.
So, a few months into living at Martha's place, he decides that's what he'll do. He'll become a duelling champion. And he'll reach the paradise called the Tops.
And he'll fix this messed up world that thinks its right to have children for scraps like this while the glittering gold above them dangles, a carrot they can't reach.
Because under the Tops are the Slums. Less space, less resources, but far more people. What they have is mostly what the people at the Tops don't need – what that one percent of Neo Domino City don't have space for, or simply don't want.
They're left to pick up all that refuse and make use of it.
But they do make use of it. And they appreciate it. They build their lives and their hopes on those scraps, and their goal is the paradise above, and the one man amongst them who's reached it.
.
Almost exactly one year later, Rin comes along. Unlike him, she remembers her family and her home but her words are vague, inexact. She's hit her head at some point and she slips in and out of consciousness and dreams. The kids take turns watching her until one day, when it's Yuugo's turn, she opens her eyes, sees him hovering uncomfortably close, and slaps him.
He falls and yells some new profanity he's picked up from the other kids. He earns another slap, from Martha who'd come to see what all the noise had been about.
'He's being rude,' Rin sniffs, when the matron turns her inquiring gaze towards her.
'I was not!' Yuugo cries.
Martha doesn't believe him. She knows him too well. That straight-forward nature of his that can earn him lots of trouble if the wrong person is listening.
Luckily, so far, the wrong person hasn't.
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Crow Hogan is the best duellist in the slums since after Jack left, but he's hardly around. More of the time, he's either stealing from the Tops or being held in detention. He'll never get to the Friendship Cup. He'll never duel Jack. Criminals aren't allowed to do either of those things.
Crow doesn't like Jack very much, but he never says why. Some of the kids think he's abandoned them and that's why. Others think the world above is just a tough customer and it's going to take more than one guy to make things fair again.
Yuugo thinks it's more likely the latter. Otherwise Jack wouldn't be worshipped for the hero he is. The hero of the slums. One of the most famous duellists of Neo Domino City – that even the Tops have his poster on every billboard. He doesn't believe Jack was the kind of guy to abandon, or betray. Jack's the kind of guy that brings smiles and cheers and passion with his duels.
They're less and less, as he grows older. Not because there are new duellists who can overwhelm him. There aren't. No-one else has come close.
Yuugo decides he will come close.
Surprisingly, Rin agrees.
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They collect cards and trade amongst each other, so they can each have the best deck circumstances can give them. They're all eager to duel but few are eager to get to the point Jack is at. The reason is that there's more than a simple duel to get through to get to him, and that height.
Crow has a duel runner. He's happy enough to teach them how to make one too, but it's tough getting the materials together. Yuugo is one of the few to tackle the challenge. Rin does too. She says she wants to fly – then snaps at Yuugo for wondering why a girl in a dress would want to sit on a duel runner.
Somehow, they wind up working together. After they try to outcompete each other in this thing that isn't really a competition. After they get into yelling matches and childish silence stints and even into a physical scuffle one time. And Yuugo can't even feel ashamed because Rin gives as good as she gets and his bruises hurt for days afterwards. Especially when Martha makes the two of them clean the house from top to bottom as punishment.
Maybe that's the incident that brings them together. They're not really sure because they were quite young then and neither of them have particularly good memories. Though Yuugo thinks his is better than Rin's. He just doesn't pay attention to the subtleties. She blanks out completely at times. Faints, or just stares at nothing for a bit. That's a recipe for disaster on a duel runner, he thinks.
And he's proven right, as when they're practising how to ride the one they've built, she freezes and crashes, and Yuugo is left with a duel disaster on his hands.
They're just lucky the really crucial bits, like the interface Crow stole for them and spent two years in detention for, was mostly unharmed.
Though they have to wait for him to get out to help fix that. And he struggles with it too. Like he doesn't quite know how to fix things like that, but there's some unconscious bit in the back of his brain that does.
They manage it, and it takes them a year to replace the unsalvageable bits and get the duel runner working again.
Rin agrees to ride on the back this time. The experience has scared her – but she still wants to fly.
Yuugo can't help but think it's such a simple dream: wanting to fly.
Then again, his dream is pretty simple too, as Rin is quick to point out.
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It takes them a total of five years before the duel runner is ready and they are both fifteen, but the first fortune cup they enter, they're both knocked out in the first round. Neither of the people that beat them get beyond round three, so it's an overall disappointing experience. It only shows how much further they have to come.
But what neither Yuugo nor Rin notice is that they are watched: during their match, and after as well. And not for the same reasons either.
Jack Atlas is perhaps the most innocent of the observers. He is merely struck with nostalgia as he sees a boy with cards picked up in the slum that go surprisingly well together, competing in a tournament that is way outside his class. He's not sure why. He made it all the way to the finals so it can't be himself he sees. And it's not. It's a different feeling. Like a friend, a rival and an enemy. Like something he's forgotten.
But he knows he hasn't forgotten. The closest thing he'd had to a friend was Crow and they'd disagreed on too many things.
It's nothing, he thinks. That boy's nothing. And he turns away.
But the man who sits at the head of the Tops continues to watch. A Go game sits forgotten in a corner – or not. The pieces are set. Black has lots of territory. White is mostly trapped. But it is still possible for white to win, if one would take that side. But everyone is focused on the tournament, or its players. And it is a world of duelling. Few care for other games. And so the Go board holds meaning to only one amongst them and he is, at that moment, elsewhere occupied.
A few weeks later though, one going into that room will notice the pieces have moved. Black has seized a little more territory. White has less of a presence on the board – at least one of its pieces have been taken out.
And Yuugo, collecting things with the other orphans, stumbles across a card so powerful he knows he can't give it up to anyone. Even though it's selfish. Even though they always share. Decide what's best for everyone.
But he's the only one of them that has a duel runner and the conviction for the Friendship Cup. No-one else will make as good use of it, he thinks.
He adds it to his deck.
And the pendulum begins its return journey.