Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal
Story: Countdown: Chapter 7: Third-1
Romance: Nasch x Durbe/Durbe x Nasch
Word Count: chapter: 1,647||story: 11,744
Genre: Romance||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Diversity Challenge, J14, a multichap with chapters between 1000-2000 words; Pairing Diversity Challenge, 09, eternal; Catch the Barian Emperors: Nasch
Summary: In this world, a counter on one's arm marks the time until soulmates meet one another for the first time. Nasch and Durbe have met one another for the first time many times.


Shark didn't like this. Something rang wrong about the whole situation and he couldn't put it into words, other than 'my counter is about to run out and it probably will by the time we get there, and we're going to be meeting at least one Barian, and I have no idea of what that could mean'.

Well, those were words, but they weren't ones that he wanted to use to anyone else, especially Yuuma. Yuuma wouldn't understand. Sure, he had issues with his own soulmates, but this was something else altogether.

He glanced at the countdown again, nervous and refusing to show it. They would be there soon. Too soon.

His counter had always been a little strange, as had Rio's. Neither one of them had been born with them, and that was strange enough all by itself. They'd appeared when they were young, after the accident.

Shark's shoulders tensed just at the thought of it. He didn't like remembering that and usually managed to keep it out of his mind without a great deal of trouble. Ever since the counters appeared, though, they'd acted just like any other counter, quietly ticking down the years and months until that fateful meeting.

In all fairness, he'd been very glad that it wasn't Yuuma or Kaito or anyone he knew. He didn't want to put any of them through the nightmare that was knowing him more than they already put themselves through. Yuuma would've insisted on involving himself even more in Shark's life, and Kaito… Kaito had enough problems with his being V in the first place.

He ran his hands over the numbers a bit absently. It had to be a Barian. That was the only thing that made any sense, because why would it be so close to being finished when they were heading right into the Barian World?

The thought of somehow being soulmated to a Barian, to one of those vile things trying to take over their world, sent a surge of revulsion all through him. He wasn't going to let whoever it was influence him in any kind of a way. He was Kamishiro Ryouga, he was Shark, no one told him what to do! If he hadn't bowed down to one of the most powerful Numbers, then he most certainly wasn't going to submit to a set of supernatural numbers that wanted to direct his love life for him.

That didn't stop the worry though, or the sick nausea that rolled through him at the thought. All fear, all anticipation, that was what it was. He could tell himself that a thousand times and it didn't do a single thing to alleviate any of it. Only one thing would: knowing exactly who this soulmate of his was and what they were like.

This couldn't have happened to Rio, of course. No, she'd safely found her soulmate, and even now she and Kotori were curled up together, watching the scenery – such as it was – go by. She didn't have a single thing to worry about when it came to her counter, now replaced by a bird's feather and a snowflake, tied together by a golden chain.

He really didn't think about the golden chain. If he didn't want to think about his own love life being ruled by the countdown, then he even less wanted to think about what his sister did or would do with her soulmate. Let them have their privacy.

I should probably get some soundproofing done at home. They were getting older, after all. They would need more privacy than they'd had in the past.

She would smirk at him. He knew it. But he'd do it anyway. And she really wouldn't argue that much, because she wouldn't want to hear him anymore than he wanted to hear her.

Did not want to think that, Shark reminded himself. No Barians, not now, not ever.

Unfortunately, the Barians were much closer than Shark would've wanted them to be and before all that much longer, he stood across from one. What worried him most of all wasn't that Yuuma faced Vector – he knew quite well that Yuuma would win – or that Kaito faced Mizael – let them fight over whatever it was they were fighting over.

What worried him was that the counter on his arm had fewer than five seconds to go and a warmth he'd never felt before rose up through his arm and the other one was taking off his hood and something in a part of himself he'd never know before stuttered and shook and his counter hit zero…

"I'm Durbe," the gray Barian said, politely inclining his head. His gaze moved from Shark to around the area, a slight crease between his eyes that made Shark wonder what was bothering him.

"You think I care who you are?" Shark bit off the words. "If we're dueling, let's duel!"

Shark thought the other said something else, but too low for him to hear. If he'd cared about it at all, he would've asked what it was. He wanted to have this duel and find out who the other person with the finished counter was, that was it.

But with each passing moment, the dreadful idea that Durbe was the other one, that Durbe was the one that the universe in general wanted him to think was his soulmate grew on him.

He swallowed mentally. This was not going well. Not the duel; he had no worries about that at all, no matter what the life points and card situation looked like. But the way his arm warmed and the way Durbe's attention moved back and forth, going to his own arm and then back to Shark over and over…

Finally he couldn't take it anymore. This had to end somehow. He'd finish the duel soon enough.

"You've got it too, don't you? Your counter hit zero when I got here." He threw his own arm to one side, showing the glimmering numbers there. "Just like mine did."

Durbe did not have a mouth to open but all the same Shark believed he'd been about to say something else when he did that. He looked from the counter on his arm – which Shark could now see was at zero as well – to Shark himself. When he spoke, his voice held a level of rage that Shark hadn't ever thought someone could have and not actually be going for someone's throat.

"No. You're not him. It's not possible. Where is he?"

Shark blinked a few times, not at all certain of what Durbe was talking about. This had taken a turn that he hadn't expected at all. "Who?"

"My soulmate!" Durbe spat the word out impressively well for someone who didn't have a mouth. "Nasch! Where is he?"

Shark shook his head. This had to be the worst moment of his life and there had been a lot of contenders. "I don't know who you're talking about. But your counter and my counter are both stopped." He didn't want to suggest touching. He didn't want to feel cold rock underneath his fingers or touching him as well.

Maybe Durbe was right somehow. Maybe there was someone else around who had a counter that also ended at this moment and that was this 'Nasch' person. He couldn't help but cast a look around on his own. But no one came out of hiding.

"I don't care. You are not my soulmate." Durbe bit the words off with frozen hatred. "You are not Nasch."

"Never said I was," Shark said with a shrug. He'd never heard of two counters stopping at the same time and someone in the area wasn't soulmate to one of the people involved. No one from the ship seemed to be ready to gasp that their counter had stopped and he knew for a fact that none of theirs were close to stopping anyway. It was a thing that one got to know after knowing people a while.

Sorting all of this out was going to take a lot more time than they had, especially since Vector decided it was a very good time and place to really start messing with Yuuma's head, and getting that settled before the world came to an explosive and messy end was far more important than settling love lives, no matter how destined or not they appeared to be.

Shark did not look at Durbe. He did not want to see Durbe. He didn't want to think about at him at all. What he wanted to do was make certain Yuuma got through this without losing his mind and without losing his bond to Astral. For the most part, he knew Yuuma would have to make it through on his own, and the mind games Vector took such pleasure in playing weren't going to help at all.

He picked up somewhere along the way that Vector had a soulmate of his own, Kaito's opponent Mizael, and he couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for the golden Barian. Some people just had no luck at all.

It would take time to even begin to heal the wounds caused by this little trip to Sargasso. Shark had no idea of where to even begin. He didn't want to think about the pain he'd seen in Durbe's eyes or how much that pain dug into parts of himself that he didn't want to even think existed.

He really didn't want to think about how much those parts of him wanted to find a way back there, to try to talk to Durbe and figure out what was going on and how their counters could match if they weren't soulmates. Or how they could be if Durbe already had one of his own.

Because he wasn't Nasch. He knew himself. He wasn't a Barian.

He wasn't.

To Be Continued

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.