Fun Fact: Yuto has poor eyesight and needs glasses. This is why he squints all the time. He has better eyesight when using Yuya's body, but he still squints out of habit. (This is based off of one darkvalkyria's posts on Tumblr. They gave me permission to use this, which was really cool of them.)

Description: After the death of Core, Yugo and his group arrive in the Synchro Dimension.


Yugo, his bike, the man named Gongenzaka, and their luggage found themselves on a roof. On their asses, after falling through a time and space.

Yugo slowly rose to his feet. As he stood up, he could see the roads above him. Lanes specifically for Riding Duels, casting their enormous shadows over him. And even further behind them, he could see the the towers and buildings from the richest areas of town.

Figures. Even with the Synchro Dimension becoming a better place, the superiority of the Tops could still be felt by the Commons.

Below them, he could hear the sounds of children's laughter. Looking over the edge of the building, he could see a few children playing in the back yard. Some were playing with a worn, patched-up ball. Others were sticking to a patio, crowding around two kids as they dueled. A cardboard box was their table, and their battlefield.

Yugo took a deep breath. A feeling of nostalgia washed over him, reminding him of his past experiences in that yard. His first thoughts were of a duel he had with Rin.

After a moment of contemplation, Yugo turned to Gongenzaka, who was rubbing his head. Yugo extended a hand out to his friend, helping him to stand.

"And why couldn't we just take public transit?" Gongenzaka grumbled.

"Because I'm not going to waste time and money," Yugo said gravely. "And Clear Wing got us here, safe and sound, for free."

"Yes, but public transit offers less of a risk for brain damage."

Yugo scoffed. "I land on my head all the time, and I'm fine! So let's just move on; they're expecting us."

Gongenzaka looked around the roof. So far, he just saw a flat, square landing, and no ways down the building. "And how do we move on?"

"We shimmy down the drain pipe."

Yugo dashed towards the front edges of the rooftop. Once he was at the very edge, he knelt down and pointed downward.

"See, I used to climb up and down the drain pipe to get up here!" he said proudly.

And then he took a closer look at the pipe. He put his hand on it, then gave it a little shake. The entire pipe started to rattle, like it was going to pop off at any second.

He looked back to Gongenzaka. "Ah... Guess we're too big now, haha."

Gongenzaka sighed. "So we scream for help?"

"Yes."

Yugo could feel the presence of Yuri. His brother's ghostly image was now in front of him, floating off the edge of the building. Why don't you jump?

"I could break my legs!" Yugo responded.

So why don't you jump?


One rescue later, and the gang had safely made it off the roof. Now inside the orphanage, Yugo and Gongenzaka now rested in a spare bedroom.

The room was small, cramped. It was a storage room right next to the laundry room, but much of the stuff had been cleared out to make room or their visitors. Now the room consisted of two mattresses on either side, a pile of clean pillows pillowcases and blankets on the corner, a laundry hamper.

Yugo sat on his mattress, next to some of his bags, while Gongenzaka pulled out items from his bag and laid them out on his own mattress. The two stayed silent, not really wanting to look at each other or address their awkward rescue.

Yugo bit his lip. He wondered if he should say something, apologize for getting them into that situation. He decided to finally break the silence. "Hey..."

One of Yugo's bags moved.

Yugo turned to look at the bag. The bag was starting to wiggle in place, and he could hear breathing from inside. The top of the bag started to lift up, and top zipper started to peel back.

To Yugo's surprise, En's head peaked out from the bag. The dog looked right at him and let out a playful bark.

Yugo's jaw dropped. "What the hell? En?!"

Gongenzaka turned to look at the scene. "What now?"

Yugo could hear the sound of Yuri chuckling in his mind. He could feel the presence of his brother behind him, leaning over his shoulder to look at the dog.

I thought we could use some more company! Yuri said cheerfully. So I stashed him in the bag while you were talking to Yuto and Yuya this morning.

Yuri ran a hand over the dog's head. En, unable to see or feel the hand, didn't react. He simply let out a few more playful barks before starting to pant.

You had a bond with Core, so I wanted to have a bond with En, Yuri explained. He reminds me of myself; strong and cute, and outlived his counterpart.

"Yugo!" Gongenzaka barked.

Yugo, Yuri and En immediately turned their heads to face Gongenzaka. The man had his arms crossed, but they were not as cross as his expression. "What's the dog doing here? You can't stuff an animal in a bag!"

"Wh- I-" Yugo stammered. "But I didn't-"

Gongenzaka quickly moved to the scene. The pulled En's bag's zipper further open, then lifted the dog into his arms. Once En was safely in Gongenzaka's embrace, he pressed his head against the man's chest.

Gongenzaka turned back to Yugo. "This poor thing could have gotten hurt during the travel. He could be dehydrated."

Wow, Yugo! Yuri gasped. This was really irresponsible of you!

"But-" Yugo protested.

"I know you like animals," Gongenzaka said to him. "But you need to be more careful, think things through."

You really fucked up here, Fusion, Yuri said. You shouldn't have brought the dog here.

Yuri! Yugo thought. Angrily. I swear to God, I'm going to-

"Oh, great!" came a familiar voice.

The boys and the dog looked to the front of the room. Standing in the door way, hands on her hips, was Yuzu. Except she was wearing Rin's standard clothes, and sported familiar orange eyes.

"So you invite the dog, but not me? Boy, Yugo, you sure have some explaining to do."


But explanations had to wait until En got some water. So the gang agreed to take the dog into the kitchen and let him roam around, while they sat down and chatted.

The living room was one of the biggest rooms in the orphanage, which was rather big in its own right. It had two sets of tables for the children, and a modest table in the corner for any of the attendants that had dinner duty.

While En drank from a bowl on the floor, Yugo, Gongenzaka and Rin sat at one of the kid tables. Yugo and Gongenzaka sat across from Rin, and a few children joined them at the table; they put themselves on either side of Rin and Yugo, so they could all enjoy each other's company. And at the other table, two children were discussing their recent sightings of a skunk ape.

As Rin ran her fingers through the knotted hair of the child beside her, she looked to Yugo angrily. "So, why didn't you invite me?"

Yugo looked at her, just as angry. A young boy was attempting to feed him his peanut butter sandwich, and was squishing it against his cheek. "Why are you here?"

"If you must know, Yuya told me," Rin responded.

Yugo sighed. Really, Yuya?

Yeah, sorry... came Yuya's voice. Well, I told Yuzu, and she must have told Rin.

"Wait wait wait," Yugo interjected. "You told Yuzu we'd be here?"

Of course! Yuya answered. I tell her everything about me.

"But I don't want the girls to be-"

Everything, Yuya said seriously.

They even sync up their meal times, Yuri added. In the hopes that they could even go to the bathroom at the same time. They plan everything together.

It's true, Yuya confessed.

I know, I watch.

"So, why wasn't I invited?" Rin asked once more.

Yugo crossed his arms. "If you must know, I'm grieving. I'm on a journey to deal with my grief. And my journey is for manly men only."

"Yugo didn't want you to see him cry," Gongenzaka explained.

"Yeah," Yugo confirmed. "Wait, shut up."

Rin rolled her eyes, and she egao'd. "Yugo, I've seen you cry before."

"Well, I didn't want you to see!" Yugo scoffed. "You always get so nice and... and motherly, it's weird."

"I'm not that motherly!" Rin said defensively. "I care, I'm responsible. But I'm not, like, a mom."

"You're grooming a kid."

Rin lifted up her hands. She looked to the little girl beside her. The girl had a few tears in her eyes, but her hair now lacked a few more knots.

"Oh..." Rin said. "Was I too rough, Sandra?"

The girl turned to Rin. "It's okay, Rin! Thank you for your help!"

Rin sheepishly turned to Yugo. "Yeah, well- well-"

Yugo just looked so smug right then and there.

"You should try being more responsible," Rin told him.

Yugo stopped looking so smug. In that moment, his high was instantly destroyed by the memory of Core's escape. The incident still weighed heavy on him, making him slump forward and keep his eyes lowered.

Seeing this, Rin's own expression softened. Boy, was there egg on her face now. And as she realized why Yugo was sad, she was sure there was like... a giant bird on her head, continually laying eggs and cracking them on her face, or something.

Rin wasn't great with analogies.

"Yugo, I didn't mean anything bad," Rin said quietly. "You can be a goof, but I still think..."

Rin extended a hand outward. Her hand found one of Yugo's and rested on top of it. Her touch made Yugo throw his head up and look at her. "Eh?"

"You worked so hard to find me when I was kidnapped," Rin went on. "You fought against Academia. You're a hero."

"But I couldn't save you," a miserable Yugo replied.

"You still never gave up on me," Rin told him. "You crossed worlds and fought people just to help me. That means so much to me."

Yugo's race reddened. He immediately pulled back his hands and put them behind his neck. He then casually leaned back in his chair and looked away.

"There you go, being a mom," he said. "You need to be cool and chill, like me."

Rin frowned. "That's not being a mom. That's being a decent human being."

Gongenzaka, however, egao'd. "Were you two always like this?"

"Pssh, always," Yugo responded. "Even the first time we met, she's been pushy."

"I'm not pushy!" Rin insisted. "And even when we first met, Yugo was pigheaded."

"You're lucky I'm cool and chill, Rin," Yugo said casually. "Or else I would have said something bad."

"Like what, Yugo?"

"Nah."

"No, pray tell."

Yugo pulled a hand forward to scratch his chin. "Like, it's better to be pigheaded than pig-faced."

One of the boys beside Yugo pat out their drink.

"That's bad!" Sandra chuckled.

"Yeah, good thing I didn't say it," Yugo said.

"But you did say it," Rin huffed.

"No I didn't. It doesn't count."

"I heard you," Rin said. She turned to Gongenzaka and added, "See, he acts like I'm a naggy mom, but then he makes it so I have to be firm."

"She doesn't know how to take a good joke!" Yugo said. "She gets mad and acts like a nag because she doesn't like something."

"I have to be honest, this is uncomfortable," Gongenzaka told them. "I would rather not get involved in this."

"You get used to it after a while," Sandra said to him.

"I'm not going to encourage this childishness..." Gongenzaka sighed. "So, Yugo. Rin. You were telling me about how you two first met?"

Rin blinked. "Oh, yeah. It's kind of a funny story, really."

But before Rin could initiate a flashback sequence, duty called. A dark-skinned woman in a long, maroon dress, and an apron approached the table. Her very presence made Yugo egao. His eyes twinkled with joy, and his hands were now balled up into fists before him.

"Martha!" Yugo exclaimed.

"I'm glad to see you're here, Yugo!" the woman responded warmly. "I'm sorry to hear about the roof incident earlier."

"Don't mention it! ... Really, don't mention it."

"Martha was helping me set up my room at the time," Rin explained to her friends. "Too bad - it would have been great to see the rescue."

"How'd you get the bike down from the roof?" Sandra asked.

"We haven't figured that out yet," Yugo responded.

Rin looked to Martha. "Thank you again, by the way. And if there's anything I can do to help you back, let me know."

Martha nodded. "How kind of you to ask, Rin! As a matter of fact, I do have a small request."

"Oh really?"

"I'm really sorry to ask you this," Martha said slowly. "But can you watch the kids for a few hours tomorrow? I know you just got here, and I didn't want to put you in this position, but..."

"Martha, it's no problem!" Yugo said cheerfully. "We'll be glad to watch the kids."

"Actually, I was just asking Ri... Thank you, Yugo. That would be an amazing help."

Yugo looked to Rin. "Yes. You could say that it's very responsible of me."

Rin grumbled, but then turned her attention back to Martha. "We don't mind at all."

But then she looked to Gongenzaka. "You don't have to help, if you don't feel like it. You can check out the city, and see what our city has to offer."

Gongenzaka shook his head. "No. I don't mind helping with the children. Count me in, as well."

Martha clasped her hands together. "Oh! You kids are angels. Thank you so much!"

"No problem!" Yugo declared. "We'll be the best babysitters ever!"

Spoiler: they weren't.


Reiji sat in his chair, back turned to Nakajima. He looked through his office windows, watching as the sun set over the city of Maiami.

It had been a long day in the office, in all honesty. Between studying the Link Dimension, discussing funds and operations, and his regular work as a CEO, the work had been piling up and up. But Reiji remained steadfast and strong throughout the whole ordeal.

Now, he was listening to the final notes of the day. His last projects to oversee before he could go home and return to his family.

"We've successfully reverse-engineered Miss Zaizen's Duel Disk," Nakajima explained to him. "We've been able to copy the field and see the rules and limitations it poses."

"Rules aren't enough," said Reiji. "I'll have to pay Miss Zaizen another visit later. We need to make sure that we understand all the intricacies of the Link Dimension's duels."

"Understood, sir," Nakajima answered. "Now, our next order of business is the merchandise."

Reiji slowly spun his chair around. He stopped when he was finally facing his employee. Now, Reiji's hands were folded neatly on his lap.

"We had some questions about the body pillows and dolls," Nakajima continued. "Why would we need different textures for the hair?"

"For accuracy," Reiji said neutrally. "For this product to sell, we need to make sure it's accurate and satisfying or our customers. That is how we will secure our future for the expedition."

"Understood, sir," Nakajima said again. "I'll reach the Lancers and study their hair texture."

"Acceptable," Reiji said. "Ruri's notes didn't cover everything, so we're missing quite a bit of information."

"But we did get the silk you asked for."

Reiji nodded. "Good. Then we can start working on the Yuya dolls' hair immediately."

Normally, an employee might find Reiji's behavior disconcerting. But Reiji's stone cold demeanor, coupled with his confident and clear way of speaking, merely affirmed Nakajima that he was working for the right man. Reiji was serious about his endeavor, and was doing the right thing for everyone.

"Understood, sir."


A/N: I'm still fiddling with the Yugo-Rin dynamic. I feel that Rin's motherly nature helps her be more mature and responsible, but Yugo still brings out that childish side of her. She thinks she's above all that, but she's not. And going forward, I hope I get to expand on their dynamics.

Next time: KOI KOI KOI KOI KOI! ENJOY!

ENJOOOOOOY!