Fun Fact: Yuto and Yugo prefer speedos, Yuya prefers swimming trunks, and Yuri prefers sunbathing in a chair and not going in the water.

Description: Ruri and Yugo team up to find something important.

Ruri had a set of papers, stapled together and given its own cover page. At seven pages (not counting the cover, index, and an explanation on terms and their meanings), this project was an intensive list for something dear to Ruri's heart.

The list was called the Butt List. The Butt List had a list of all the male Lancers' rears (sans Shun and Reiji), and scored them on various categories: shape, size, perkiness, smoothness, bounce, softness, and how well they filled pants. Each butt would also have their own series of notes, often stretching multiple pages.

This list was Ruri's pride and joy. She would work on it at least one night a week, and she was constantly adding new information to her work. When she was done, she would hide it at the back of her book shelf, confident that no one would ever find it. It was one of the few things Ruri kept secret from her sisters.

So when Ruri woke up one day, found that her window was open, her books were thrown to the floor, and her list was missing, you can imagine the horror she felt

Yugo was crouched beside his D-Wheel, in the Sakaki family's driveway. He ran a rag over the bike's exterior, while his free hand held onto one of the handles.

Ruri stood behind him, nervously wringing her hands. She hated waiting, being patient for this. Her anxiety was through the roof at this point.

"You done?" she asked him.

"Almost!" Yugo told her. "Just stay quiet, and..."

Yugo dropped the rag to the floor, then rose up to greet Ruri. After wiping some sweat off of his brow (and leaving a bit of oil on his forehead), he turned to Ruri and gave her a thumb's up.

"So, what brings you here?" he asked her.

Ruri looked over to Yugo's shoulder, to the bike parked in the driveway. As expected, his D-Wheel was in pristine condition, with very few scuffs and scratches on the exterior. A small side car, matching the white paint of the main bike, was attacked to the left side.

"What's with the side car?" Ruri asked.

Yugo looked over his shoulder. "Eh, that's for the pets, when they go for a ride."

As if answering a cue, a deep, long meow came from the side car. A cat's fat head popped up and looked at the humans. It was Core, and he was letting out a loud yawn to greet them.

"Core's lost some weight, so he's finally able to fit inside," Yugo explained to her. "I was going to take him for a ride around town, so we could celebrate."

"... Huh," was Ruri's only response to that. "Anyway, speaking of bikes! That's why I needed your help."

Yugo tilted his head. "Wha...?"

"So, here's the thing," Ruri explained. "Every night, I lock my bedroom window, so if Shun is spying on me, he can't get in. But I must have forgotten to lock the door last night, because he got in, and..."

"And what?" Yugo asked.

Ruri blushed.

"And?"

"N-nothing important," she said quietly. "Well, it's important to me, but it doesn't really... matter... what it is... Yeah."

"Tell me," Yugo said.

"It's not important."

"Tell me! I wanna know now."

"It's not-"

Yugo frowned. "You can't keep me in suspense!"

"Fine, fine!" Ruri said. "You can't tell anyone about it."

"Deal."

Ruri took a deep breath. "Okay, so... It's a Butt List. It scores the butts of the Lancers, and each butt has notes that delve into the personal details."

Yugo put a hand to his chin. He looked down to the ground, and then moved his gaze over to Core.

"Oh," he said quietly.

Ruri was cringing hard now. Her hands grabbed hold of her bangs and pulled on them. Her normally serene face was now redder than Yuya's hair.

"I'm sorry!" Ruri cried out. "Please, don't be angry! But you can see why I wouldn't want it in someone else's hands, right?"

"No, I get you!" Yugo told her. "And look, I'm cool with you checking out my butt. Rin might not like it, but-"

"I was checking out Yuto's butt."

"Oh."

"Yeah..." Ruri said sheepishly. "So, about the list? If Shun has the list, he could use it as blackmail."

"Why would he do that?" Yugo asked her. "He's crazy about you.

"That's just how siblings are; they love you, but they also torment you. And he'd probably use that to make me stay away from Yuto, or to make me spy on the other girls."

"The bastard! Turning you against others..."

Yugo punched his open palm. He stared right through Ruri. "Where is he? I'll run him over right now!"

"That's the problem!" Ruri said. "I don't know where he is, and he's not answering his Duel Disk!"

"So we're going to ride through town and run him over when we see him?"

"No!" Ruri shouted. "We need to ride downtown and find Reiji. I'm sure he can help us find Shun as quickly as possible."

Yugo nodded. "Alright! You, me, and Core will ride the winds and go on an adventure."

Core meowed. Yugo knelt down and rubbed the cat's head. The cat let out a loud, friendly purr and rubbed its nose along Yugo's wrist.

"This will be Core's first adventure," Yugo said. "And he's going to do a great job playing detective, isn't he?"

Core meowed again.

"He's excited."

Reiji was a busy man. Not many people were allowed to just enter his office in the Leo Corporation tower, unless they had a meeting scheduled. Even the duchess of Japan needed to sign up for a waiting list just to speak with him.

Luckily, the Lancers were able to talk to him at any time. Yuya, especially, was granted permission to not only visit him whenever he wanted, but he was also allowed to take up as much of Reiji's time as he wished. Thus, Yugo and Ruri had no trouble getting into the tower and into Reiji's office.

Now, the two were standing before Reiji's desk, with Core by their feet. But the CEO was not even looking at them; his eyes were glued to the stack of papers in his hand, and they were darting down a page.

"So, do you know anything about this?" Yugo asked him.

"About what?" Reiji asked them.

"About my list!" Ruri said urgently. Her hand clutched at her shirt.

"I wasn't paying attention," Reiji told her. "Something about Shun and a list? I don't really have time for this."

"It's important!" Ruri pleaded. "Shun's not answering my calls, and we need you to track him!"

"And what can I do, exactly?"

"You should know where he is; just listen in on him," Yugo told him.

Reiji lowered his hands, and he looked up to Yugo and Ruri.

"We know you always spy on us through our Disks," Yugo said. "And, like, that's pretty weird and suspicious, but..."

"But we'll put that aside for now," Reiji said. "As a matter of fact, I can help you find Shun right now. But I don't think that's what you want."

Ruri tilted her head to her left. "What?"

Yugo tilted his head to his right. "Why not?"

"Shun doesn't have your list," he told them.

"So you admit to spying on Ruri!" Yugo shouted, raising his fist to Raiji. "What a creep! I'll knock your lights out if-"

Reiji raised his hand to silence Yugo. Yugo blinked and pulled down his arm, though kept his hand balled up.

"I don't admit to anything," Reiji insisted. "I can track your Duel Disks' positions, via a built-in Global Positioning System. If Shun was anywhere near your house last night, then I would have picked him up."

"So you were looking at our locations?" Yugo asked. "That's convenient. But what if Shun didn't have his Duel Disk on him?"

"Shun would never leave his Duel Disk behind," Ruri told him. "He'd never let himself go unprepared for a fight."

Reiji nodded. "Right. So Shun is not the culprit."

"Then who is?"

"I detected another Duel Disk's signal in your room last night. And Ruri, it's someone very close to you."

Reiji had given them a name: Shuzo Hiiragi. Possibly the only person who would be worse than Shun, for a situation like this. If he had that list, who knows what awkward conversation would soon ensue.

Ruri needed the list, and she was willing to fight Yuzu's father to get it. And to avoid any awkward conversations, she had to confront him first and show him who was boss.

Shuzo hadn't been answering his Duel Disk, however, so Yugo, Ruri and Core had to ride across the city, hit up the Hiiragi household, and confront the man inside.

Shuzo was sitting on a couch in his living room, reading a book Yoko had lent him. One foot was resting on his other leg's thigh, propping up the book for him. His left hand held into the book, while he stretched his right hand across the top of his couch.

He heard Ruri step into the room. He looked up to his daughter and immediately dropped the book.

"Hey, Yuzu!" he said to her. "You were in such a rush this morning. What happened?"

"Ruri," Ruri corrected. "I had to run because I lost something important."

Shuzo frowned. "What is it?"

"You know what it is, Mr. Hiiragi!" Ruri snapped. "The list. My List. And I know you have it."

Shuzo immediately jumped up from his seat. The book flew off his lap, hit the coffee able, and slid to the floor.

"What are you talking about, sweetie?" he asked her. "How could you accuse me of stealing from my own daughter?"

Ruri egao'd ruefully. "Oh, really? Then explain why you were in my room last night."

"I-I-I wasn't!" Shuzo stammered. "Please, Ruri! I want to help you, but tell me what's happening!"

Ruri turned to the archway. "Yugo, he's not talking. Bring in Core."

Yugo turned the corner and appeared at the archway. By his feet was an obscenely large, obscenely cute, and obscenely hungry cat the size of a half-full garbage bag, who was purring like a car engine.

"Geez, is that a skunk ape?!" Shuzo barked. "What is Yoko feeding that thing?!"

"No, it's Co-" Ruri began. "... Wait, why do I keep hearing about skunk apes?"

Yugo and Shuzo shrugged.

"Mr. Hiiragi, I'm sorry for this," she went on. "But if you don't tell the truth on your own, then we will have to make you confess by force."

Core turned his head to the archway. He made his way over o one of the walls and started to bite down on the wood framing.

Shuzo looked down at the cat, then back to the kids. And he looked extremely confused and frustrated with the turn of events. "A cat is biting the wall? What's so bad about that?"

Core pulled his head back. After a bit of struggle, it backed away from the wall, a chunk of the wood in its mouth.

Shuzo's jaw dropped. Yugo knelt by his cat and started to stroke Core's back.

"Good boy, Core!" Yugo said. "I love you."

"Ruri and Yuto!" Shuzo barked.

"Yugo!" Yugo corrected.

"Yugo! You guys come in here, accuse me of stealing..."

"But we have just cause!" Ruri said.

"... Threaten me in my own home, destroy part of my house..."

Ruri cringed. "Yeah, guess this looks pretty bad."

"I think you two need to run some extra laps at Duel School," Shuzo said. "This behavior is unacceptable, so maybe an extra hour of exercise will keep you on track."

"Yes, Mr. Hiiragi..." Ruri sighed.

"Hehe, on track," Yugo chuckled.

Core meowed.

Shuzo sighed. His face softened into one of concern. "But yes. I admit that I was in your room last night. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"Why were you there?" Ruri asked.

"Because I needed Yuzu's fan," he explained. "I dropped my Duel Disk in the bath tub. It wasn't working, so I went into your room to grab the fan and use it fan it dry."

"Why didn't you use towels?" Yugo asked.

"Because ninjas broke in and took them, alright? They needed to use them to stop some evil group."

"Tsukikage and Hikage... I wonder what they've been up to?"

Shuzo shook his head. "Long story, not the point right now. The point is that I broke my Duel Disk and wanted to get the fan. But I didn't want to wake my daughters and ask them, so I just went in and took it."

"So you don't have my list?" Ruri said sadly. "What about my books? Were they on the floor when you came in?"

"No to the list, but no to the books," he confirmed. "Now, will you tell e about the list?"

Ruri blushed and turned her head away. She couldn't face Shuzo and tell him the truth. But... Hopefully she could convince him with a lie. But...

"Let's go talk about this in the kitchen," Shuzo told her. "Yugo, you stay here."

Shuzo walked out of the room, passing Yugo and Core in the archway. He made his way down a hall, into the kitchen.

Ruri let out a long, long, long sigh. And then, very reluctantly, she started walking out of the living room.

"This is terrible," she grumbled. "No leads, we're in trouble, and we're wasting time."

"Wait, Ruri," muttered Yugo.

Ruri stopped in her tracks. "What is it?"

"Reiji knew that Coach was in your room last night."

"Right..."

"But if your dad didn't have his Duel Disk on him, or it was broken, then Reiji shouldn't have known he was there."

Ruri's eyes widened. "Unless he was able to spy on us a different way."

"He must have cameras in your room."

But while he said this, Yugo's eyes fell to Ruri's Duel Disk. Ruri followed his gaze, then looked back to him. The two exchanged solemn nods.

"We have somewhere to go, Ruri," Yugo said to her.

The two were once again standing before Reiji's desk, with Core by their feet. Reiji kept his hands folded in front of him, on top of a stack of papers. Behind Reiji, the afternoon sun poured through the window, coating the room with a warm orange light.

Reiji flipped his scarf back. around his neck. "So, did Shuzo Hiiragi have the list?"

"No, he didn't," Ruri replied.

"That's too bad," Reiji sighed. "But were you able to get any other leads, then?"

"We have one," Yugo told him.

"Reiji, how were you able to tell that Shuzo was in my room?" Ruri asked him.

"By tracking the GPS on his Duel Disk."

"But he didn't have it on when he came into my room."

Reiji's eyes focused on her.

"You couldn't know he was in the room if he didn't have his Duel Disk," Yugo said. "How're you gonna explain that, huh?"

Reiji's voice and expression remained neutral. "I merely detected Shuzo's Duel Disk. I can't tell who was wearing it at the time."

"But the Duel Disk broke before the list went missing," Ruri said. "There's no way you could have known he was in the room."

"Perhaps he was in your room much earlier, but-"

"I was awake until 3 last night!" Ruri said. "He didn't enter my room until after 3, and by then, his Disk was broken."

"And the list was taken after he showed up," Yugo added.

"Which begs the question, Reiji: how could you have known he was in my room?"

Reiji leaned back in his seat. He merely stared at the duo before him with cold, disaffected eyes.

"But we're not here about you spying on us," Yugo told him.

"We already knew you spy on us," Ruri continued.

"Indeed," Reiji said. "And so what? You're wasting time, confronting me about something we all know."

"We're not confronting you for your spying," Ruri said. "We're here to talk about the fact that we caught you lying."

Reiji's eyes widened ever-so-slightly. "Excuse me?"

"You tried to steer our trail right to Shuzo," said Yugo.

"Because I thought he would be guilty. Spying or not, I was correct about him being in the room."

"That' exactly right!" Yugo exclaimed. "And that's the problem!"

"Why wouldn't you be able to detect anyone else?" Ruri asked.

"You would know that someone else was in the room."

"But you didn't tell us. And why would you have a reason to lie to us?"

"... Unless you were in on this the whole time?"

"Logical fallacies," Reiji told them. "Huge leaps and conjecture."

Ruri slammed her hands on the desk. "Admit it, Reiji! You're covering for someone! Heck, you probably started this!"

"Maybe he's covering for Shun!" Yugo blurted out. "That's why he lead us away from Shun! That's why he isn't helping us find him!"

"I can explain," Reiji said. "You're all simply assuming you know the truth, but-"

Reiji let out a gasp. He, along with his chair, fell backwards and crashed onto the floor. The papers, once underneath Reiji's hands, had slipped and fell down with them.

Yugo and Ruri ran over to the other side of the desk. They could see Core on the ground, biting down on Reiji's scarf and pulling at him. Reiji lay on the floor, now pulling at his scarf. His papers were strewn about all over the floor... Including some that Ruri immediately recognized.

Ruri jumped to the floor and started scooping up the pages of her list. Reiji tried to rise up and stop her, but another pull from Core slammed him back to the ground.

"So you had the list!" Ruri exclaimed. "We were right!"

"Why'd you do it, Reiji?" Yugo asked, austere.

Yugo knelt down before Core, then started to stroke the space between his ears. The cat let go of the scarf and lifted his head to look at Yugo. He licked his owner's fingers, then rubbed his face against Yugo's palm.

Now free, Reiji rose up from the floor. Once he was standing, he patted his body to brush off any dust or dirt from the floor. Not that there was much dirt or dust; he always kept his office in immaculate condition.

"Yes, Shun was spying on you at the time," he said to Ruri. "When I saw that you left the window unlocked, I told him about the list."

"So he knows what's inside?!" Ruri gasped.

"No," Reiji said. "I told him to bring me the list, without reading it."

"And why'd he agree to that?" Yugo asked.

"In exchange for his service and silence, I offered him something he wanted," Reiji explained. "Rank-Up-Magic search cards."

"But why?" Ruri asked. "Why did you need the list?"

"Are you a pervert?" Yugo asked.

Reiji turned his eyes away from them. "No. That's not it."

"Then what is it, Reiji?" Yugo asked. "What is it?"

"Funding an army and training them costs a lot of money. Designing and printing new cards costs a lot more. On top of maintaining all the dimensional technology at our disposal, we're bleeding more money than we can make."

Ruri tilted her head. "How are you not making money? Wouldn't people be grateful for all your hard work?"

"Money isn't an infinite source," Reiji told them. "At any rate, we're struggling to pay for our plans for the Link Dimension."

"What do our butts have to do with making money?" Yugo asked. "Wait.. Gross."

"Merchandising," Reiji explained.

"What."

"I want to use Ruri's information to make the best merchandise possible," Reiji explained to them. "By producing Lancer merchandise, we can fund our efforts, while also building a positive public reception and drawing in investors. It also promotes the Lancers, which could provide boosts to their careers as Duelists."

"So the merch could help us all out..." Yugo whispered.

"Exactly."

"What kind of merch requires you to know about butts?" Ruri asked.

Reiji didn't answer.

"Reiji? Reiji, what kind of merch requires you to know about butts."

"Nothing improper, I assure you," Reiji told her. "Must action figures, pillows and the like. Nothing that would present a bad image for the people involved."

"That's good, at least..." Yugo said. "But still, stealing wasn't nice."

"Would you rather I ask all of you for this information?" Reiji asked.

"N-no..."

"So you see why I had to be... selective in what I had to do."

Ruri rose up from the floor, papers in hand. She clutched the list against her chest and took a step away from Reiji.

"So, this is pretty uncomfortable, so we're going to leave," Ruri told him. "Sorry to bother you. Never come near my house again."

Core meowed.

Ruri turned to Yugo. "Let's go, guys."

And then she turned back to Reiji. "We're going to go home. And then we're going to see what we can do to stop you from spying on us."

Core meowed. And he and his humans made their way towards the door.

Ruri, Yugo and Core all stood on the sidewalk outside the Hiiragi home. Yugo was leaning against his bike, while Core and Ruri stepped onto the front lawn.

"Well, I better head inside," Ruri said. "Mr. Hiiragi's already mad at me; I need to do some major damage control."

"Yeah, that won't be pretty," Yugo confessed. "Least we had fun though, right?"

Ruri nodded quickly. "Yes. And I really want to thank you for all your help, Yugo."

Core meowed.

She looked down to the cat. "You too, Core! You were really great today."

The cat purred. He moved closer to the girl ad started to rub his face against her leg. His loud, contented purring could be heard from even across the street.

Ruri held her list to her chest. She looked down at it, and then up to Yugo. "If... if you want, I can show you."

Yugo raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"The list. Your measurements. Other peoples' measurements. And rankings. And... and stuff."

"No way!" Yugo scoffed. "... I mean, you said nice stuff about me, right?"

Ruri egao'd. "Maybe."

"So I'll just take a peak, but that's it."

Ruri handed to over the list to Yugo. The boy immediately flipped the cover page and scanned through the index.

"My name isn't here."

"You're under Yuya's section," she explained.

"Do our butts change when we take change places?" he asked her. "Like, is my butt different from Yuto's? I have the nicest butt, right?"

"Nicest is hard to define," Ruri said. "Each butt is ranked by specific categories."

"Ah."

"There's shape, size, perkiness, smoothness-"

"Yeah, got it."

Yugo flipped to the page with Yuya's notes. Although his reading skills were not as refined as, say, Yuto's, he could still read through the list with only minor difficulty.

"So, I rank third in roundness," he said. "And-"

The list burst into flames in his hands. He immediately dropped it to the ground, letting the pages burn and blacken before everyone.

"Oh my God!" Ruri exclaimed.

They watched in horror as the list slowly burned. Its pages curled, and pieces of the paper started to fall away.

"No..."

Soon, the list was reduces to a pile of ash, and chunks of black, unreadable shreds.

Ruri looked up at Yugo, who simple bit his lip.

"Yeah, sorry..." he said sheepishly. "That's been happening sometimes."

"What?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think it's our Zarc power?" he mused. "Yeah... Sometimes we create new cards. Sometimes me and ny brothers can read each other's minds. And sometimes we accidentally start fires with our minds."

Ruri just stared at him. Yugo bit his lip again, much harder than before.

"Look on the bright side!" he said. "Uh, at least the list... can't be used against you?"

Ruri just continued to stare at him.

They gathered underneath a tree in the Hiiragi family's backyard. Ruri's hands dragged a pile of dirt to cover up a small hole in the ground. The more dirt she moved, the less of the burnt list could be seen.

Once the list was completely buried, Ruri knelt down on her knees. She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, and she engaged in a small, thoughtful silence for a moment.

A single tear ran down Ruri's face. She let out a shaky sigh, then let her hands fall to her sides. She threw her head up to the sky and watched the tree's swaying branches, and saw a few green rain down on them.

Yugo broke the silence. "It'll always be here, Ruri. You can come mourn any time you want."

"Thank you," Ruri whispered.

Core sat beside the grave. He wasn't particularly interested in the scene; he spent mot of this time giving himself a tongue bath.

"I'll miss you," Ruri said to herself.

"But we'll have the memories," Yugo said. "It's... I know it's not the same and stuff, but-"

"You're right," Ruri responded. "It's not the same."

Ruri clasped her hands together. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and let out a small, sad gasp.

"... I'll miss you, list," she said.

Ruri put her hands to the dirt. Honestly, she was hoping that the list would somehow sense her feelings, her sadness. That if the list was looking down from heaven, it would see how much it meant to her.

"Ruri!" Yugo called out.

Ruri opened her eyes. To her surprise, a stem was rising up from the dirt. At the top of the stem was a bud, which was slowly blooming. Brilliant, purple-colored petals spread out and revealed themselves to the world.

Ruri was staring at a beautiful violet. Tears ran down her face, and her hanging mouth curled into an egao.

"I think that flower means something, Ruri," Yugo said to her. "It means that your list is gone, but its meaning isn't. Because now, it's feeding the flower."

Ruri's eyes twinkled. She looked at the blooming flower, taking in its beauty and majesty. And in that beauty and majesty, she could see everything she loved about the list.

And then Core brought his head town to the flower and ate it.

A/N: After I finish this fic, I'm thinking about doing a short sequel series, following the ARC-V cast and their kids. Mostly showing off how the world has changed, how duels have changed, and how the ARC-V cast turned out. What do you guys think? Would you be interested in that?