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Natsuko's POV

I'm not gonna lie to you: I was totally smashed. Like, cross-dressing, running in high heels, driving a semi at 100 miles an hour through town wasted. In other words, I probably shouldn't have been allowed to be alone. But I wasn't exactly alone—I had my date that I'd picked up at the resort's club. Sure, there were other places I could go for a good time, but they were all missing one very important thing: that cute waitress, Lisa. And, that night, smashed or not, I'd scored.

Yeah, that's right. I got Lisa to go out with me. First we were going to the public beach for a dirty swim. After that, we were heading to Fubuki's private beach for the real fun. I'd told her I'd go in and get some pillows and a blanket, but I doubted we'd use them.

So, yeah. I was totally drunk and about to go sleep with a cute waitress. Akiko and Fuyuko would say that was typical of me, adding in that I at least knew her name.

My excuse for not noticing Judai when I passed him? Well…I was distracted and drunk. But I'd notice him later.

Asuka's POV

I took Ai back to her room, where I helped her treat her wound. Then, pretending to worry about her, I refused to leave. Seriously! Thanks to how horribly Ai was treating my real friend Judai, I'd just yelled at three of my friends at the same time! And one of them had reacted so horribly that you'd think I'd just killed his firstborn or something! But I was stuck in this stupid act, so I had to make it convincing.

"Are you sure you're okay now?" I asked. "'Cause I could always sleep over with you, if you're not."

I was really hoping she'd say she was fine. I mean, I still had to go tell Kyle and Junko what they had to do from now on so that they didn't blow it and put us all in danger again. Equally as important, I had to talk to Judai without Ai there and try to find out what was wrong with him. Because I had to keep it secret from Ai, I needed to distract her long enough to get that guy somewhere more private.

Maybe I could let him in on the secret if he promised not to tell the others. After all, most of them were major gossips, and some got nervous when presented with such a dangerous secret. If one of those ones found out, they might slip up and tell Ai the truth. After that, Ai would realize that Judai knew how to get that barrier down and would isolate him completely, likely kidnap and rape him, and I might end up the bait for that! I mean, it was risky enough even telling Judai, given his desire to involve others in his business. If he thought they needed to know, he'd tell them in a heartbeat! But, with the way he was acting, I probably didn't have a choice.

Why did it seem like Judai's main goal in life was to make mine difficult and miserable?

"I'm fine," Ai said, much to my relief. "Don't worry about it, Asuka."

"If you say so…" I said, rubbing an arm as I stood in the doorway.

Being a good friend to this little bitch was difficult. For starters, I hated her! But, if I didn't try hard enough to act like I liked her, she'd get suspicious. On the other hand, if I tried too hard, Ai might decide to make me stick around, and I'd miss my chance to deal with the rest of my business for the day. Honestly, if this was what happened when Judai finally reappeared after six years, maybe it would have been better if he'd just stayed gone.

"Don't worry about me," Ai said with a smile. "I'm tougher than I look."

I laughed, taking that as my cue to stop pretending to worry. "Well, okay, then! See you in the morning?" I turned to leave, smiling over my shoulder.

"Yeah, see you!"

Good. Now I could go fill Kyle and Junko in, then find some way to keep Ai away from Judai long enough to tell him. Hopefully he could keep his big mouth shut, no matter how miserable the others were at my "betrayal."

"Great. Take it easy, okay? Night!" I headed out to deal with my little issue.

Ai's POV

"Night!" I said as Asuka left.

I was wrong about her. She had changed since last time Judai had seen her. Back in high school, she'd been worried about his sudden change, but she hadn't known what to do about it. Since she couldn't find a way to fix things, she'd just let things get worse and worse. When he'd left without even saying goodbye, it must have broken her heart. Her other excuses left me curious about her true motives at first, but she wasn't lying about hating Judai. I was sure about that one. With that in mind, she wasn't likely to help him. In fact, with that hatred, she was more likely to help me, whether she meant to or not.

I went to bed, mindful of the bump Manjoume had given me…again. That was the thousandth time. Maybe it was time I told someone about that man. Then again, they couldn't punish him without upsetting Judai, and that wasn't something I wanted to do. I wanted him to like me, after all.

Fubuki's POV

When Kenzan and Manjoume came back that evening, they brought bad tidings. Kenzan, obviously, didn't have any good news, given how he looked. In fact, he was so bad off that Akiko Tokugawa, the girl known for her coarse attitude, dragged him to the bathroom to treat his wounds. I couldn't blame her, since he did look like he'd been through a blender, but Akiko!? She didn't care about anyone, the last time I checked!

But even worse than the looks of Kenzan was the news Manjoume had. His news also explained Kenzan's current state of…uh, skinlessness.

Sitting on the couch, Sho's eyes bugged out. "What!? She didn't!"

"Afraid it's true. Judai's stuck on the beach with that creep, completely vulnerable. It's only a matter of time until Ai gets him in bed with her."

"Then why is nobody out there with him?" Jim asked, looking concerned.

Akiko poked her head out of the bathroom, having heard everything we were saying over the water running in the sink. "I was gonna say, it only takes one to deliver a message."

As I'm sure we all saw coming, Sho cried, "I'm off!" as he got up and bolted out the door.

It was one of those things you could have blinked and missed.

Johan, apparently, did. He stared at the door for a bit, stunned. "Somehow I don't think that's a problem anymore…" he said, sweating.

Kenzan came out of the bathroom, carrying a first aid kit. Apparently he didn't want to be kept out of the conversation. Relentless as always, Akiko followed him, carrying a cloth that I could only guess was soaked in alcohol. Clearly he wouldn't be getting out of her treatment that easily.

"Well, we would have if he didn't act like he needed to be alone at that moment," Kenzan said, sitting down in the walkway. "I mean, with Asuka turning traitor and all."

Wait, what!? Asuka had turned traitor!? No, that wasn't possible! She just wouldn't!

Akiko sat down next to Kenzan and went back to work, as though my sister turning traitor wasn't at all surprising or worthy of concern! She wasn't even reacting!

My eyes bugged out, and I sat forward quickly, staring at Kenzan in disbelief. "What'd you say!?"

Ryo mimicked me in all but the bug-eyes. He looked just as horror-struck as I felt. "You can't be serious."

Manjoume crossed his arms, glaring. Oh, no! Clearly this wasn't just a sick joke if Manjoume was agreeing with it! "Hmph. Oh, it's true, alright. She was last seen helping Ai out after I clogged her in the head for yet another of her attempted rapes. Although, this time, she was after Judai."

So…she had helped Ai…after Ai had been stopped from violating someone? That was an awful thing for Manjoume to say about her, and he never did that! What the hell was going on!?

As Akiko rubbed Kenzan's arms clean with alcohol, I decided that he must have been made of steel because he didn't so much as flinch. And he spoke of my sister's betrayal without any pain when he said, "Yeah! And then Asuka came over with her and yelled at all three of us!" He pointed at himself, adding, "Me for trying to warn Aniki of Ai's plan…"

Well, he looked to be in emotional pain, if not physical.

Angry, Manjoume pointed at himself as he continued the story. "Me for clubbing the bitch, and Judai for who knows what reason," he said, throwing his arms up in the air. He crossed his arms. "Knew sending her out on a mission to collect information from Ai was a bad idea."

…This was unbelievable… Asuka had turned traitor. We had the information we needed, but Asuka wasn't with us where she would be safe, and she hadn't left, either. Instead, she was hanging out with Ai and viciously yelling at her friends for standing up to Ai. What could have triggered that?

No… No, it—it couldn't have been that Ai had somehow gotten Asuka to admit her true feelings about Judai. Could it?

"That doesn't seem right…" Fuyuko said.

Akiko tore Kenzan's ruined shirt off him once she'd finished with his bare legs and arms, carrying on with her treatment. Kenzan, meanwhile, started wrapping bandages around his arms.

"Geez, some friend she turned out to be," Akiko said. "No wonder Judai ran off without saying goodbye."

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Was she trying to imply that it was our fault that Judai had taken off without a word? But we hadn't done anything to him! He was just a mystery wrapped in a puzzle! There was no way to tell what he was thinking most of the time!

Kenzan stopped everything he was doing and turned to the accusing blond. "Wait, what?" Getting defensive and offended, he pointed at her, then himself as he said, "You think it was our faults or something? Aniki's always been that way!" He crossed his arms, closing his eyes. "Headstrong and mysterious. Who knows what goes on in that head of his sometimes!"

Good defense, Kenzan! And it was exactly what I'd been thinking, too.

"Yeah, mysterious is right," Manjoume added. "Why else would he suddenly decide to stand up to my brothers first year?"

"So he wanted to lose touch with you guys? That's funny, considering he used to drag you guys around everywhere. And he's not that big of a mystery. He likes dueling and cares about people. What's so mysterious about that?"

Did she really think he was that easy to read? But she didn't even know him! Who was she to tell us we'd done something wrong?

"Why'd he care what my brothers did to me?" Manjoume asked. "Last I checked, he hated me, like everyone else did back then! Where'd that sudden burst of 'caring' come from? Can you explain it!?"

Well, that was another Heart-Tugging Point for Judai! He was nice to someone the whole school hated! Man, he was such a good guy…until third year. He had even been worried about me when I used Darkness to try to get through to Ryo when he turned Hell Kaiser, and we never even hung out back then! What a great guy he used to be!

…So what had changed?

"You're right about him, in the past," Ryo said, "but let's face facts. He's changed. Sure, he still loves to help others, but he's nowhere near as easy to read as he used to be. For one, when Sho was dueling with my deck, he just took off out of nowhere there at the end. That's not something I'd ever think he'd do. So where did that come from? Well?"

What? He'd even walked out on Sho!? But the guy had been his best friend since first year, he'd nearly killed himself looking for Judai during their second year, and he worshipped the ground he walked on! Why walk out on a guy like that!?

"Whatever happened in that other dimension's what changed him," Akiko decided. "Because he changed when he came back."

"Yeah, I know," Kenzan agreed. "But I still don't understand why. Stuff like that's usually just water off a duck's back with him, but…" He looked down.

They were right. Looking back, Judai had been fine before Yubel took Johan hostage, so what happened in Dark World must have been the cause. So what was it? That hellish tale Sho had written about, The Terrors of Haou? The fusion with Yubel? Or was there something else that I was missing? Some of that was still a blur to me. Could that missing information hold the answers I needed?

If only I could remember it. Even Sho didn't know. He wrote about a sacrifice in his book, and I remember that clearly enough simply because of where I wound up because of it, but the details of what happened before I wound up in that hellish place are shrouded in fog.

Hadn't I been in anguish for some reason?

"Well, anyway, there isn't much we can do about that now," Johan said. "What's done is done, and we've got other problems to work out right now. Like why Asuka changed sides, or finding a way to stop Ai."

As usual, he was right. Ai was a menace, and Asuka… I was just hoping I was wrong about my suspicions of what was going on there. Then the only remedy would be to mend a fence that none of us seemed able to mend—our friendship with Judai. Since we didn't know what had caused him to change and pull away from us some, we couldn't fix it.

Anguish… What was that feeling about, anyway? I never got like that! Ever!

"Agreed," Fuyuko said, jolting me from my thoughts. "How are we supposed to lower that barrier?"

Johan put a finger to his chin, looking thoughtful.

Right. We needed to stop Ai. I'd worry about this anguish thing later. Maybe, if we helped Judai get away from Ai, we'd finally be able to fix things without having to remember every detail of that horrible place.

"Hmm… Well, according to Asuka right before she turned on us, we'd need to find him a girlfriend," Johan said. "However, due to Asuka's betrayal and him being stuck with Ai, that may be a lot harder than we first thought. We need a way to get his mind off Asuka so he can recover enough to want another girlfriend, and then we'd have to find some way to keep Ai occupied. Any ideas?"

Another girlfriend? So was it possible Johan had noticed what I had? Had he noticed the feelings Judai and Asuka had for each other? Or maybe Judai had said something—Johan was the only one of us he still talked to, after all. So it wasn't just me for once! My sister and Judai had been interested in each other in school! Too bad it had ended in tragedy when neither said anything and he'd left without a goodbye.

Asuka really needed closure, which Judai had robbed her of. Granted, given his own issues, I didn't really blame him. He'd always been naïve, and he'd become secretive and reclusive after Dark World, so why would he say anything? But, still, Asuka couldn't get past it. And, now, there were those new feelings she had for him, thanks to his abrupt departure. She had slowly turned from abandoned to… Oh, boy, her betrayal had been bound to happen eventually. Who could endure that kind of unsettled pain and not turn on the one who caused it?

But this wasn't the time to ramble about my broken sister and her failed relationship! Judai had other issues right then…and I only had an idea to help with the first half of that mess. After all, getting Judai's pain under control would be easier than trying to find him a girlfriend.

"Well, they say alcohol always helps with the first one, but…" I said.

As Akiko wrapped bandages around Kenzan's torso, she said, "That's only temporary, though, isn't it? And it doesn't always work. Some people can never get drunk enough for that."

"Besides that, if you did manage to get him that drunk, he'd be extremely vulnerable to Ai," Ryo added. "Then he'd wind up sleeping with her, and he might wind up impregnating her. Then, by Misgarth law, he'd have to marry her."

Oh. Right. I sunk down in my seat, feeling like an idiot. After all, drinking was known to relax you and destroy your inhibitions. If he went too far under, he'd probably do all kinds of stupid things. After all, hadn't Ryo said I'd been singing perverted and bizarre love songs that I'd made up? Off-key, to boot? Yeah, alcohol was a really dumb idea.

"Good point…"

"Any more bright ideas?" Johan asked, his tone showing he thought my idea was stupid. Seriously, I got it! Quit rubbing it in!

After a bit of thinking, Manjoume said, "A blind date, maybe. That's all I got, though."

"The problem with that is, if he's not into it, it's not going to go well," Fuyuko pointed out.

"Something about this whole thing with Tomorrow Girl just doesn't seem right," Jim said suddenly. "She volunteered to help, didn't she? So why would she be on Ai's side now?"

I looked down. Oh, he just had to ask, didn't he? None of them would like the answer, if I was right. After all, finding out that a friend hated another one of theirs wasn't going to be pleasant for them.

I was certain it was true, too, even if Asuka wouldn't admit it. The way she had talked about Judai ever since graduation proved it. She complained about him being too selfish to say goodbye, pointed out every little thing Kyle did that was better, and heaven forbid Judai show up on the news for some sort of heroic deed! That led to endless sarcasm and complaining! I never wanted to see him and O'Brien in Iceland fighting evil duel spirits again! Asuka was so mad that he was with O'Brien that I'd blocked most of that year out of my memories! She'd made the Dark Army look tame because of that! Why, if she hadn't met Kyle, I didn't know what I'd have done. Last year had been pure hell!

I leaned back against the couch and sadly said, "I can answer that…I think…"

Everyone looked at me. Well, no backing out now.

I sighed. "Well…"

And, so, I launched into the story of a life time: My sister's six years of pain, loneliness, and hatred.

Sho's POV

I ran around, calling for my Aniki. The beach was nearly abandoned, no doubt due to the time of night it was. All I saw was a few couples here and there, enjoying the sunset and the night sky. Looking across the way, the resort was more active, lit up like a birthday cake. Its light was shining everywhere on the beach. But, still, nearly deserted or not, finding Aniki on that beach wasn't exactly easy. It was a pretty good-sized beach, after all.

"Aniki!" I called, drawing it out. "Aniki! Where are you!?"

It was starting to get chilly, with the cold wind blowing in off the waves. In addition, it was supposed to be really windy tonight. I'd worn a jacket my Nii-san had thought to bring along for me, just in case, but I wasn't sure if Aniki would be warm enough in that Osiris Red jacket. I mean, it wasn't exactly meant for warmth.

When I found Aniki, he was just standing there, looking a lot like what Jim had described right before Haou had awakened. I ran over, worried. What could have happened to him? Was he okay. I sure hoped Haou wasn't coming back out or something. I needed to get Aniki's attention fast!

"Aniki? You okay!?" I asked, gripping my friend's shoulders firmly and giving him a gentle shake. "What's wrong? Come on, say something!"

Oh, I sure hoped he'd answer! If he turned into Haou, again, I didn't know what I'd do! We'd probably have to evacuate the island, fight Aniki, and hope we could get through to him without the Eye of Orichalcum. Jim had said he'd lost it after that, after all. Oh, who was I kidding? If that happened, I'd either wind up dead, or we'd have to kill Aniki to save the world!

I imagined Aniki turning into Haou again and going on a rampage, killing everyone on the island with his dark powers before moving on to the rest of the world. No, Aniki! Don't do it!

Aniki blinked and looked at me. Thank goodness, a reaction! Maybe I wasn't too late!

"Sho…" he said.

He said my name! So he wasn't turning evil again! Jim had said he wouldn't speak to him when he'd done this the last time. So, if it wasn't that, what could it be? He sounded and looked so upset that it wasn't even funny. This couldn't have been something trivial.

"…Hey. You okay?" I asked.

He took a second before he answered, "I don't know."

"Come on, let's get you some place warm."

I headed off, thinking we could try to find a cave or something. Maybe he was just upset about being out here all alone. After all, Kenzan and Manjoume had left him at Ai's non-existent mercy about an hour ago, and that wasn't very nice of them. Leaving the victim to his attacker. Unbelievable! They could have at least found him a place to hide first! Those two creeps were getting an earful from me the next time I saw them!

That was when I noticed that Aniki hadn't moved.

I stopped, turning back to him. He was still standing in the same place, looking no better than before. "Aniki? You coming?"

He didn't answer, staring at the ground instead.

Okay, so I'd come to help him, which should have cheered him up if the only problem was that he'd been abandoned. So what the heck was wrong this time? Would Aniki ever make sense again? I felt so sorry for him, and frustrated that I couldn't help him because I couldn't even figure out what was wrong. Would he ever go back to normal?

"Okay, Aniki, what's wrong?" I asked, walking back over with a lame look on my face.

A moment later, he asked, "How come the people you're closest to always lie to you?"

…What? That was random.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

What could he mean? Had Manjoume or Kenzan said something mean to him before they left!? It was probably Manjoume. That jerk never could keep his mouth shut, the son of a—

My thoughts were cut off by Aniki's next word: "Asuka…"

Asuka? Asuka? The girl that had never been mean to Aniki in her life!? I mean, if she had been, he would have known what we all knew: That she was scary when mad and a dirty, rotten trickster. Like in first year, when she and her friends tied me up and said I'd been peeping in the girls' bath house so that she could force Aniki to duel her! Seriously, if she wanted a duel that badly, she should have just asked! Why do something so underhanded?

But that wasn't important right then. The point was that the only time I'd ever seen her be mean to Aniki was when he had mistreated her during the Pair Duel tournament in third year. Her doing something that would cause this made less sense than a purple baboon with wings doing a can-can dance!

"Huh? What about Asuka? She's here trying to help you, isn't she?"

"Yeah, well, now she's on Ai's side…and she was mad at me, for some reason…"

My eyes bugged out of my head. Asuka was on Ai's side!? What the hell!? And she was mad at Aniki!? But he hadn't even done anything! This was crazy! It couldn't be true! It just couldn't!

"W-w-what!?" I stuttered.

Aniki didn't answer. I guess he didn't want to repeat it or go into any more detail.

I had to ask. Maybe it wasn't true. Maybe I'd misheard him. Maybe Aniki had done something to upset her so bad that she'd switched sides at Ai's suggestion, like during the final duel of the Pair Duel tournament. No, that couldn't be it! Aniki wasn't that messed up that he could drive one of his friends to betray him for a stalker even more devious than Rei!

"M-mad? Ai's side. What are you talking about, Aniki? That makes no—"

"She came over here with Ai and yelled at me, saying I deserved this. Then she yelled at Manjoume for hitting Ai to get her off me before and at Kenzan for spying on her when she was trying to trap me on the beach."

My eyes bugged out again. "WHAT!?"

She was yelling…at Aniki…for no reason? Manjoume and Kenzan, I could understand! But she never yelled at Aniki for no reason! And she was with Ai!? Why!? What on earth could have caused all of that!? What could it be!? She was our friend, for crying out loud!"

"Uh-huh…"

"B-but why would she do all that!? I thought she was our friend!"

"So did I… Guess we were both wrong…"

I froze up from shock. I was having such a hard time processing this information that my brain shut down. There was no way Asuka would betray us all like this. She'd come to help Aniki!

I spent the whole night trying to work that all out. Aniki was so upset that he didn't even try to snap me out of it—I doubted he even knew I was there. So I stood there in shock and denial while Aniki stood there depressed.

We'd have stayed there forever, if somebody hadn't come along and found us.