A/N: Here's another chapter that's less comedic than normal. (But just as unfunny as normal, so don't worry.) It's like Scale 9, in that it's a story that needs to be told because it will be important later down the line. But Rank 5 will be a bit more comedic.

Fun Fact: Yuri hasn't spoken to Yuto since Scale 9.

Chapter Summary: Yusho's absences cause friction for other members of the family.

When you're riding an elevator alone, you have some to enjoy the peace and think. Even Yuya, who had to share his body with his brothers, had introspective time.

They were coming back from visiting Yuto's parents. Yugo and Yuto had retreated deep into the mindscape to talk amongst themselves. Yuri's presence was felt by Yuya, but neither of them said a word to each other.

Yuya's thoughts were filled with joy. Because the second he would get to his place on the fifth floor, he would get to spend time with his father.

Although he would help in class, or observe Yusho and Dennis, Yuya didn't get to spend as much time with his father as wanted. Oftentimes, other people would need Yusho, or Yusho would have to work late to help others. Being such an important figure in Heartland meant that he was often busy; he would often come home to Heartland Tower late, and he rarely got the chance to visit his home dimension.

But not today. Because Yusho cleared his schedule just for his kids. They were going to have a duel, the four boys against Yusho. Yusho would have a turn after each boy's turn, giving Yusho more time and chances to make the duel even more fun. It was gonna be great!

The elevator came to a halt, and the doors opened into the hallway. Yuya immediately slipped out and power-walked right down the hall. He dashed towards the door to his father's place.

But as he approached the door, the knob started to shake. The door swung back to show Yusho Sakaki. Yusho took a step outside before noticing Yuya's approach.

"Yuya!" he said with an egao. "How was the visit with Yuto's parents?"

"It went well," Yuya assured him.

"Well, I'd be glad to talk with Yuto about it later, if he needs to."

"I think he's doing good right now. But I know a duel will make him feel a lot better!"

Yusho's egao softened into an uneasy smirk. "About that, Yuya..."

"What is it?" Yuya asked cautiously.

"I really want to spend time with you boys..." Yusho said slowly. "... But I'm afraid I'm going to have to put our duel on hold for now."

Yuya frowned. Without thinking, his hand clutched at the pendulum on his neck.

"Oh," he sighed. "Why?"

"I have to head to Heartland Peaches, the old strip club near the cemetery. The dance floor caved in during an act, and they need my help for the next few hours."

"What's a strip club?" Yuya asked.

Yusho's eyes briefly looked away from his son. He covered his mouth and let out a couple of loud, forced coughs.

"It's a club for... gentlemen... to... strip paint off of... floors, so we can re-use them when we're building."

"Oh, can I come?" Yuya offered. "I don't know a lot about that stuff, but I'd love to come and help."

"No, no!" Yusho said quickly. "Your mother would kill me if she found out."

The man ran a hand through his son's hair, ruffling it up a bit. Yuya couldn't help but egao at the gesture.

"Don't be sad, son," Yusho told him. "I'll hurry back home as I can, so keep that egao going for me."

"Okay, okay!" Yuya laughed. "Go ahead. I'll go make some dinner for when you get back."

"Thank you for understanding, Yuya," Yusho said softly. "And I'm really sorry, boys."

"We'll be fine! Just go and do what you need to do."

Yusho nodded, and Yuya stepped aside to let his father go. As Yusho walked, the duo waved each other off, until Yusho faded from view.

Yuya sighed and walked into his father's door.

Yuya found himself deep within the center of mindscape, in the void that was surrounded by fog.

He could see Yuto and Yugo, standing and talking amongst themselves. Yugo leaned against an unseen wall.

"Yeah, hashtags are weird, I don't get them," Yugo admitted to Yuto. "But I guess I can see why they're important."

Yuto nodded. "They're tools to help us redpill the masses; start a trend and use them to expose the truth to-"

Yuya approached his brothers. He gave them a small wave to grab their attention.

"Hey, guys," he said.

"Oh, hey," Yugo answered. "We were just talking about Yuto's plan to expose Reiji."

"What?" Yuya asked. But then he shook his head. "You know, don't answer. I can see this is just going to go off the rails if I encourage it."

Yuto threw his head back. "The revolution will be recognized."

"Is it time to duel Dad now?" Yugo asked. "We're done hanging out now; I'm ready to go!"

"About that," Yuya started. "I need to tell you guys, Dad's-"

"Guten tag!" came a voice.

"Oh no," Yuto grumbled.

Yuya had been interrupted by the arrival of the fourth boy. Yuri started to materialize close by. He waved proudly to the trio, a deranged egao on his face. A few pieces of paper were clutched in his other hand.

"Yuya, Fusion!" Yuri called out excitedly.

"Holy hell, fruitpie!" Yugo roared. "Call me that one more time, and I swear I will run by bike over your damn head, you crappy shithead!"

"Yeah, that's great. Anyway, do you guys want to read my new story? It's called Yoko: She-Wolf of the SS."

"Do you just say bad things to get a reaction out of people, Yuri?" Yuto asked, sounding very austere. "Because none of us are buying it anymore."

Yuri just scoffed. "Yugo, wouldn't you like to read my story? I've made 73 puns about the Holocaust in the first chapter alone!"

"No thanks," Yugo responded. "What's the Holocaust?"

"Glad you asked! So, you remember in my last story, when Hitler and Yuriko-"

"So, Yuya," Yuto interrupted. "Aren't you supposed to be dueling our father right now?"

Yuya let out a small sigh, but kept an egao on his face. "Something came up, and he had to take a raincheck."

Yuri moved closer to Yuya, his arms crossed. Judging from his sour face and the scoff he made, he was annoyed by something.

"Geez," Yuri groaned. "You were looking forward to spending time with him, and he bailed. That's so lame."

"It's not his fault, Yuri," Yuya replied. "He's busy helping other people."

"And he never has time to help us? Fusion's been looking forward to dueling him again too."

Yugo turned his back to the others. "That's it! I'm getting my bike!"

Yugo took a running start into the fog, deeper into depths of the mindscape. He soon disappeared from view, leaving the other three still standing around. He didn't know it then, but running away from that situation was a great choice for him.

"That's so lame," Yuri said again. "You'd think Dad'd make time for his three heroic children and Fusion."

"Well, he's a busy man!" Yuya responded. "Remember, a lot of people need him, not just us. You have to understand that we can't just have him all to ourselves."

"Yeah, because we already have so much time with him when he visits for like week," Yuri said sarcastically. "And since we're visiting, we even get to five minutes of alone time a with him! Wow, lucky us!"

"He's trying his best, Yuri."

"And aren't dads supposed to be there for you when you need them?" Yuri protested. "He just puts everyone ahead of us. He doesn't seem to act a good father."

Both Yuya and Yuto's eyes widened. Both of them stared incredulously at Yuri, who just seemed rather annoyed and confused.

"Yuri, you're going over the line," Yuto told him. "Just back off and forget it."

"Yuya, don't you think I'm right? Mom spends time with us, but he doesn't. He's doing the opposite of what she's doing, and we know she's a good mom. So therefore..."

"Stop it, Yuri!" Yuya barked. "Just drop it, okay? You just don't get it!"

"I'm not saying he's a bad man!" Yuri said defensively. "Just that he's acting like a bad father, and we deserve better."

The air was tense. Both Yuya and Yuri were fuming, but neither of them were willing to back down.

Yuto was also starting to grow angry. He had gone from a calm moment with his family at the cemetery, to a serious and stressful moment now. But he decided to keep cool and bite his tongue, so as to avoid letting his anger get the best of him. The last thing he wanted to do was escalate things further.

"You don't want to hear the truth, tomato," Yuri scoffed. "I'm telling you the reality of things, but you're too stupid and angry to get it. This is the man who abandoned you and Mom for three years."

"How about you shut up?" Yuya yelled. "You don't know what you're talking about, so just shut up about Dad!"

Yuri didn't say anything. He just let out a small, pissed off groan.

"He could have hated you for what you did to him," Yuya continued. "Instead, he accepted you as his son. But you're just so ungrateful-"

"Hey, I'm only saying this because I care, idiot."

"But you don't care, Yuri! Don't pretend you care!"

Yuri cringed, and a low growl escaped from his lips.

"You're just trying to play a sick game, as usual," Yuto grumbled.

Yuri didn't answer. He glared at Yuya, unblinking, to show that he wasn't intimidated by him.

"You just want to start something, get us fighting" Yuya added. "Or-or-or you want to make me upset, so you can take over and laugh about it!"

Again, Yuri didn't answer.

"I always try to defend you, Yuri!" Yuya said frantically. "But you just keep acting like an ass. You're not getting better, you're not becoming a better person. I know you're not a monster, but-"

"No, I am a monster!" Yuri hissed. "So you better stay away from me, if you know what's good for you."

Yuya took a step back. Seeing Yuri's frustrated, reddening face made him realize Yuri's own, genuine anger. At once, Yuya felt most of his rage dissipate.

"Yuri..."

Yuri turned his back to Yuya. He slowly started to fade from Yuya's sight.

"W-wait, Yuri!" Yuya called out. "Wait, I didn't mean to lash out. I-"

Yuya reached a hand out to Yuri, almost expecting to grab hold of him. But his hand went through Yuri's back, and Yuri finally faded out of view.

"I'm sorry, Yuri..."

"Forget it, Yuya," Yuto said. "Yuri's not worth the effort. He will never change. "

A/N: A guest comments: "I'm kinda upset you skipped the entire duel between Sawatari and Yuu, mainly because Sawatari never won a single duel alone in the anime and I'm not counting the one in episode 7 since 99% of that duel was cut off too."

Really sorry about that. I decided to skip this duel because we just had a small duel in Rank 1, And the next few chapters after this will be duels. I felt that it would have been too much dueling for those who aren't interested in those parts of the story.

But don't worry, because Sawatari will also get involved in a duel soon. And he could have more duels in bonus or AU chapters, if a lot of people want that.

"Also I saw how you gave Yuto the last name Tsukumo, which is last name of the protagonist in Zexal, Yuma. Part of me is glad that you killed him off as I never liked him anyway, and part of me is question how those 2 are related since their personalities are very different from each other, unless Yuto got a whole bunch of traits from mainly his Mother."

That's a good question. But no, Yuma was not killed off. Since the protagonists don't appear in ARC-V when they logically should, I'm running with the idea that they simply don't exist in the ARC-V universe. Simply put, the Yu boys essentially replaced the original protagonists. That's not to say that past or future protagonists can't appear in some way or form, though.

So Yuma and Yuto aren't related. Yuto's parents are just alternate versions of Yuma's. As for why Yuto's was raised by the Tsukumo family...

EpicLinkSam asks: "So, judging from the last bit, I assume it's Yuri Yuki, and Yugo Fudo?"

Short answer: yes and no. Long answer: Yuto is a Tsukumo because Mirai and Kazuma Tsukumo are his parents, much like how Yuya's parents are the Sakakis. When the dimensions split, and Zarc placed the kids in each dimension, they all took similar roles as past protagonists.

Yuto was raised by a family, much like Yuma. Yugo was raised in an orphanage without a family, and Yuri spawned in Academia.

Yusei at least had a family name, but Yugo never had that luxury. He was just always there in the orphanage. Like Rin and some other kids, they simply didn't have a known last name. Those kids were given "Fudo" as a last name (a name that originated from the orphanage's founder.) The name symbolizes that, although the kids don't have a family to look back on, they would have a family now. Usually though, any adopted orphans would go on to take their new family's surname, or use both names. Right now, Yugo has taken Sakaki as his last name.

Yuri's in a similar boat, though this differs from Judai's story a bit. According to Yuri in episode 123, Academia was all he's ever known. Academia simply just had Yuri there. He had no family or birth records, but thanks to Zarc's magic, no one thought much about it. For the sake of convenience, he was often just called by his student number. Like Yugo, he's since taken Sakaki as a last name.

Next time: The fifth dimension sends an envoy. Meanwhile, the Yu boys get a little jealous. Time to play a Requiem for Pendulum.