Last edited: July 2019.
Timeline: partially overlaps chapter 10.
-V-
-V- Counterpart Confrontation -V-
-V-
"I honestly cannot believe this."
Hauling the lunchboxes along, Judai looked entirely too pleased with himself.
"I honestly cannot believe I let you talk me into this," Johan said, clearly exasperated.
"You're the one who insisted on following me here," Judai quipped, not sorry in the least. "If you don't like it, then you can go home."
"We both know what happened last time," Johan said.
Judai shrugged mildly at that, more or less conceding his point.
"True enough," he commented, glancing towards the street camera on his left, taking note of its movements. "Is the high route alright with you? I feel like avoiding traffic."
Johan's exasperation increased. "You do realise that this isn't like that time in Venice, right?"
"You weren't even there!" Judai responded, slightly annoyed. "Besides, Venice was awesome up until that guy decided to show up and ruin it in his attempt to kill me."
Johan just sighed heavily at that.
-V-
Sakaki Yusho only had one son, but Sakaki Yoko had allegedly decided that she wanted two of them.
Akaba Reiji was using the street cameras to keep track of the more recent acquisition and said acquisition's acquaintance.
Yuki Judai and his friend, Johan, were weaving their way through the Maiami streets. Shiunin Sora wasn't with them, but Reiji honestly wasn't too sure as of yet whether or not this was a good thing.
The pair displayed on the main monitor was aware of Reiji's scrutiny, but much like him, they seemed to aim for subtlety. Or at least they had, up until the point when they were about to pass off into territory where street surveillance ended. There Judai turned his head slightly, flashing a grin and a victory sign at the camera before disappears from view, soon followed by his companion.
On one hand, Reiji considered the merits of a direct confrontation. On the other hand, Reiji considered the latest encounter.
Surveillance was enough for now. After all, the ones attacking LDS duellists were XYZ users. Yuki Judai's used Fusion, and if Reiji's theory about an Academia connection was indeed true, then odds were that Johan was a Fusion user as well.
There was something decidedly off about it all though.
The colours and the affinity for Fusion, especially in combination, obviously pointed to Duel Academia. However, even with the offhand reference to the Professor, the values seemingly held by Judai pointed in another direction.
After all, the Akaba Reo that Reiji knew would hardly have bothered with cats. Rather, if bitten, then he would probably have ordered for it to be euthanized.
Actually, the thought of an Academia student keeping a pet seemed a bit odd. The thought of someone who was not a student was less odd but still left Reiji wondering what he could possibly be dealing with.
Shiunin Sora was obviously a student, but Yuki Judai and Johan were both too old.
Graduates then?
Reiji had to admit that it was an intriguing thought, because he had merely assumed that all Academia students became soldiers sooner or later. Perhaps Akaba Reo's control over Academia was not as absolute as Reiji had initially assumed? If so, then any dissidents would prove highly useful to Reiji and his cause.
Yuki Judai at the very least could probably be persuaded to fight for Standard, going by his seeming attachment to the Sakaki family.
Of course, there was still the chance or rather the risk of him protecting Sakaki Yuya merely because he still needed him for later. Still‒
The monitors displaying the energy readings lit up to indicate a sudden spike.
Arms folded across his chest, Reiji waited.
Fusion or XYZ; such was the question.
The answer?
Neither.
Intrigued, Reiji listened to his subordinates making their report.
A Normal Summoning has been carried out, but it had given off a highly disproportionate reaction.
Still, in regards to who was responsible, Reiji didn't have to wonder. The readings largely matched those recorded from Yuki Judai in his latest duel.
Still, why Normal Summoning of all things? A Monster summoned by normal means hardly stood a chance against an XYZ Monster, even using some type of Special Effect.
As the minutes ticked by, Reiji waited.
As expected, there was another strong summoning reaction, this one XYZ. Reiji fully expected a Fusion reaction to follow, but instead, they both disappeared, first the XYZ reaction and then the other.
Reiji stayed for more than an hour, but nothing new occurred.
Reiji was back at his office when the first reports arrived, informing him that Yuki Judai and his companion had been spotted downtown.
"Nakajima." He turned to his subordinate, having arrived at a tentative conclusion. "Get someone to monitor the movements of Shiunin Sora."
"What about Yuki Judai?"
Yuki Judai was an unknown, but he had a definite link to the Sakaki family and was as such unlikely to stray very far from them without good reason.
Shiunin Sora on the other hand was a wild card, a scout from Duel Academia.
Reiji already had the XYZ rebels to deal with, so for now, he needed to play his cards right and collect more information.
Yuki Judai knew far too much and wasn't someone Reiji wanted as his enemy; such was the realisation that had come to him back when they were all at You Show.
Yuki Judai was also knowledgeable about Fusion, and knowing what they would be facing‒
"I will confront him directly."
-V-
Elsewhere, Judai sneezed.
-V-
Coming to the Standard Dimension, Yuto had expected a whole lot of things.
Yuki Judai was not one of them.
First, there was Yuzu, Ruri's doppelganger, and then there was Yuki Judai, apparently the brother of Yuto's Standard counterpart. Yuto honestly hadn't thought that he would see either of them again for quite some time, if at all.
Yuto had gravely miscalculated.
Yuto had also gotten slightly careless.
As usual, he had been keeping an eye out whenever he was not working on securing more supplies, trying not to think about Shun's increasingly erratic behaviour. At this rate, his best friend would either crash and burn or get himself caught by the LDS, something that Yuto had tried to convey to him but as usual, Shun hadn't been receptive to reason.
I better go look for him, Yuto had thought, but he had barely risen to his feet before catching sight of something utterly peculiar.
It was roughly the size of a housecat, purple, with a tail that had a huge chunk of red at the end. Its eyes were a similar ruby colour and disproportionately large, much like its ears… all four of them. Simply put, Yuto had never seen anything like it, not outside of a duel anyway.
Yuto should have known better than to follow it through the slightly open warehouse door, but he had done it anyway; curiosity had gotten the better of him. Granted, he had known better than to run into it unprepared, having readied his duel disk just in case.
The strange creature ‒ a Duel Monster spirit ‒ quickly scurried over to the person standing inside the warehouse, and climbed up their legs and before finally settling on their shoulder.
Yuto spotted the blue jacket, thought Academia, and then, out of nowhere, he got shoved inside and was barely able to react before the door was pulled shut and locked from the outside. Bewildered yet at the same time grimly determined, Yuto readied his duel disk.
Despite obviously aware of his presence, the other looked up only then, green eyes regarding him through teal-coloured bangs. Then, the other shifted their stance, their activated duel disk glimmering ominously. It was not Academia-issued one; even in this kind of situation, Yuto noticed that.
"Just for the record," the guy deadpanned, setting three cards. "Not my idea."
Yuto didn't get it, but summoned Level 3 Phantom Knights of Rugged Glove. He then Special Summoned Level 3 The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots and overlaid them, XYZ Summoning Rank 3 The Phantom Knights of Break Sword.
The teal-haired guy in the blue jacket did nothing.
The natural thing to assume was that one, if not more, of the set cards were traps. Still, the lack of aggression proved decidedly confusing.
"Whose idea was it?" Yuto asked at last, because unlike Shun, he had qualms about attacking when others had made no move to attack him. "Just for the record."
The guy shifted his gaze to a point slightly behind Yuto which prompted him to turn around.
An eerily familiar grin met his eye, along with oddly-coloured, smiling eyes. "Yo, Yuto."
"Yuki Judai," Yuto responded, because even though the eyes were different, the rest was the same.
Then, as if only to screw with him further, Yuki Judai held up a lunch box, still grinning. "Hungry?"
-V-
Later on, upon his return, Shun commented on Yuto's odd behaviour. He didn't ask about the new goggles though, probably presuming Yuto had stolen them from somewhere.
In the time that had passed since Academia first had started wreaking havoc in their hometown, they had done plenty of things that they were less proud of. In the end though, no one really had the right to blame them. They could only blame themselves for not being strong enough.
"Yuto, you're not eating."
Yuto was not eating because he was unusually full, both with food that wasn't cup ramen and with information and theories and possibilities. Frankly, he was full to the extent that he was feeling a bit nauseous.
"Is it that dream again?"
It wasn't the dream of their hometown ‒ of everything and everyone ‒ getting destroyed or taken. "Yeah."
Obviously, Yuto wanted to tell Shun. Frankly, he needed to tell Shun. But now was not the time, because knowing Shun, he would definitely‒
"Shun."
Shun stopped chewing and levelled him with a look.
"The LDS is onto us."
Shun scoffed at that. "That's what we want. How else are we going to lure Akaba Reiji out into the open?"
Akaba Reiji wasn't the enemy, they had said. Or, they had remedied, he was at least the enemy of their enemy, Academia.
Still, explaining all this to Shun would not be easy, because Shun was paranoid and impulsive, and given this piece of info now, he would no doubt go out and do something irreversibly stupid.
Yuto knew that he would eventually have to explain the situation to Shun. He still needed some time though, in part to verify the info that he could verify and in part because he needed to figure out just how to explain the fact that he'd been ambushed, treated to lunch, given a pair of replacement goggles and good advice on how to keep a low profile in town.
"Yo, new goggles. Yours got wrecked in that duel, right? With Sawatari, you know? The banana-peel with the attitude?"
Apparently, that Sawatari guy had mistaken Yuto for his Standard counterpart, Sakaki Yuya. In turn, the LDS had used Sawatari's testimony as an excuse to start a feud with the You Show Duel School, as they were seeking to obtain a new summoning technique invented by this Sakaki Yuya.
Then there was Judai and that Johan guy. The pair did seem to have at least a rudimentary grasp on the different dimension, which explained Judai's relative lack of surprise at the time of their initial encounter. Neither he nor this Johan guy seemed particularly familiar with XYZ though, and no display of hostility. The closest had been the unmistakable look of dislike crossing Johan's face when Judai had mentioned the Academia scout, Shiunin Sora.
This meant that there was either an anti-Academia fraction in Fusion, or that some Standard citizens that had somehow ended up with knowledge about Academia and the situation with the different dimensions.
Yuto honestly could not say which he was hoping for. Besides, Academia already had its pawns in the Synchro dimension, meaning that Standard had likely already been infiltrated by Academia spies.
If so, then indeed, there was reason for them to exercise caution.
Yuki Judai obviously knew that it was just Yuto and Shun now, so if he had been an operative himself, then he wouldn't have had any reason to pretend otherwise. And without Yuto, Shun would have become even more reckless and an easy picking.
-V-
Shun lingered longer in the morning, commenting that Yuto's colour was off and that he should stay hidden and rest. Clearly, Shun hadn't looked properly at his own reflection for a very long time.
Against better judgement, Yuto let him go. In the end though, it proved a very good call.
"Yuya?!"
Suddenly, there was a woman, tall with long blond hair. There was also that Johan guy from before, looking like he was very much regretting coming there already.
"Yoko, this is Yuto," he said, making introductions. "Yuto, this is Yoko, Yuya's mother."
-V-
"Well, that wasn't very smart of you, was it?"
Even from a bit of a distance, Yuto could hear Yuki Judai's comment to what Johan had just told him over the phone.
"Of all people, I really don't want to hear that from you," Johan commented, sending a brief look Yuto's way before returning his attention to the ongoing call.
"Still, Johan, what were you thinking?" Judai quipped, strangely amused.
"No, no, Judai, what were you thinking?" Johan snapped right back at him, decidedly exasperated. "You're the one who got outed by a washing tag!"
Yuto got temporarily distracted by Yoko, who kept fussing about his health and eating habits.
"Geez, Johan. It wasn't like I was even planning on it. I got lost. It happens."
Looking like he had been dealing with far too much shit as of late, Johan heaved a heavy sigh. "Only you, Judai. Only you."
"Besides, it softened the impact, didn't it? Saved you some trouble too."
Johan lowered his voice significantly. "Something tells me that I wouldn't ever have been through this much trouble if I hadn't befriended you."
"Says the guy who followed me all the way to town."
Johan pinched the bridge of his nose, seemingly having forgotten all about his small audience. "Say Judai, how's Fusion training going? You're all over at You Show, right?"
You Show. Yuto remembered the girl, Yuzu. Even though she wasn't their Ruri, her using Fusion didn't sit too well with Yuto.
On the other hand, from what Johan had said, it was the perfect excuse to rope the Academia agent into teaching, which ultimately gave him less time to track down Yuto and Shun.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer and preferably busy, and whatnot.
Also, it did help that the agent believed himself to be amongst friends. It was obviously a game that could not be played forever though.
"We're making progress. It's something."
"Will you make it to the Maiami Championship?" Yoko asked, clearly listening in. "The deadline's coming up."
There was a slight pause. Johan switched over to speaker phone.
"Probably. Right, and Yuya's got that Smiley guy to arrange some Official Duels for him. The rest are also in on taking part in the championship."
"What about you then, Judai? How about it?"
Again, there was a slight pause. "Me?"
"Yeah, you. Youth Division. How about it?"
"Mom, not that it wouldn't be fun, but I've honestly got better things to‒"
"Honey."
There was a heavy sigh from the other end. "Yeeees?"
"Fried shrimp."
Yuto wondered if it was a codeword of sorts, because after hearing it, Judai basically went "Fine, whatever, I'll compete", and ended the call soon thereafter.
Next, Yoko turned her attention back to Yuto, a slightly troubling smile on her face. "So Yuto, what's your favourite dish? How about your friend? Preferences? Allergies? How about hygiene products? Clothes? Yuya'll surely let you borrow something, and as for your friend‒"
-V-
"Yuto."
Yuto acknowledged the newly returned Shun with a look. The tone used indicated that it was a question, so Yuto explained. "Your share. I've had mine."
Shun narrowed his eyes rather suspiciously at that, but nevertheless opened up the sizeable lunch box to have a look. "Looks home-cooked."
"Is home-cooked."
There was a slight pause, stemming from evident confusion. "Where did you get it?" Shin asked.
Yuto understood Shun's confusion; he experienced it himself, albeit to a lesser degree. "Does it matter?"
"Yes, because I told you to stay put and out of sight."
He had stayed put. It hadn't helped him much. "I did. They're the ones that found me."
Shun looked positively alarmed at that, alarmed yet at the same time confused. "They? The LDS?!"
Yuto shook his head at that.
"Then who? What? Yuto!"
Yuto wondered about how to properly explain things without having it all blow up in his face.
"Eat," he decided at last. "Eat and I'll tell you."
-V-
