Notes

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all reviews, favorites and everyone reading :)

Are you all prepared for some exposition and the introduction of the most talked person in this story?

Sorry for any mistakes.

Enjoy!

PS 15 – The Story

Yuzu was in shock. She just stood there looking at Yuya with a surprised face not knowing how to react or what to say. He was saying something to her, but her mind couldn't process anything at the moment. A small part of her always had hope they could meet again someday, but this was the least possible place she had expected. A house in the middle of nowhere during her vacation.

Logically, she knew Yuya and the other boys were alive, they have just been missing since the end of the war, almost 5 years now. The one and million questions in her mind were not coming to her and she still could not get out of her shock. Maybe it was all an illusion of her tired mind, after all, during this time of year she could get really sentimental and nostalgic, and many things reminded her of her dearest friend.

At the corner of her eye she caught a glance of a photography on a table beside the couch she was sitting and how did she ended up sitting in a couch!?

"What? Where am I?" asked a puzzled Yuzu.

Looking around, she found herself to be sitting in a couch for two in a big living room with two more couches, a low table in front of here with flowers and a side table beside her with a picture over it and a vase with flowers. In one of the walls there was a piece of furniture with even more flowers and pictures which she couldn't see from where she was sitting. She was most probably in the house she just found not even a minute ago. How she came to be inside? She has no idea.

"Are you okay?" asked a very familiar and impossible voice from the other side of the room.

Yuzu looked in the direction of the voice and once again saw Yuya, but this time she didn't stand still.

"Yuya!" shouted Yuzu who suddenly got up surprising the guy who almost let go of the tray he was holding with two cups of tea.

"What is it? Are you okay, Yuzu?" now Yuya was showing a worried face. Yuzu moved close to him and touched his face, not believing the image in front of her. Now she was certain, he wasn't taller than her, they were still the same height.

"You are Yuya…?" she asked with clear disbelief in her face. Yuya's face suddenly changed to understanding.

"Why don't you take a sit and we can talk?" said Yuya with a sad smile on his face.

Yuzu once again took a seat and Yuya sat down in the couch to her left putting the tray with their teas on the low table.

"First of all," started to say Yuya, "take a drink of this tea, it will help you to calm down. I didn't expect you to be that shocked at seeing me—" Yuzu interrupted him mid-sentence.

"What's going on!? How are you here!? How did I get here? Are you Yuya?"

"Yuzu!" this time he shouted, "please drink this tea and I'll explain." Once again Yuya offered the tea to her who finally took it, but didn't try it.

"Now, you are in our home in Ranmachi in the Fusion Dimension. After seeing me at the door you just stood there without saying anything so I pulled you inside. I asked Reiji to extend an invitation for you to come here and—".

"Reiji? He knows about you being here? Invite me for what?" asked Yuzu who still couldn't process present events and with a hurtful face asked, "Yuya, what's going on?"

Yuya was looking at her with a worried face and after a moment his face took a determined expression.

"I'll explain everything. However, I need two things," he said and raised a finger, "number one: let me talk, I'll tell you everything, but we can't advance in this conversation if you keep asking questions every time I say something," then he raised a second finger and with a wink said, "number two: please drink your tea, it's really good and will help."

Yuzu took her face away from the other and finally took a drink of her tea. She found his words to be true as it tasted great and helped her calm a little, which was much needed after Yuya's next words.

"First of all and the most important thing you need to know, I'm Sakaki Yuya… but at the same time I'm not the Sakaki Yuya you know," he said with a sad smile.

This confirmed what everyone suspected since the end of the war, when the three brothers disappeared with Yuya. Yuzu didn't need any type of proof as she already knew it to be true because if the Yuya in front of her was really her Yuya he would have come to them a long time ago. The Sakaki Yuya everyone knew and loved was gone and in front of her was a stranger with her friend's face.

Now that her worst fears have been confirmed, there was no reason for Yuzu to hear what this guy had to say. He was not the friend she knew. She could leave and never look back, however, with a look at this Yuya's face she knew she was going to stay. At the end of the day, she wanted answers to some of the questions she's had for the last 5 years.

After a moment of silence in which Yuya probable let her take his words in, he continued with a long and sad story.

He was the youngest of four children and his older brothers (Yuto, Yuri and Yugo from oldest to youngest, exactly as she had thought about in a hall in Academia so long ago) were triplets. They were all born and lived their whole lives in Maiami City. His mom (no name given at the moment) used to be the senior manager at his grandfather's duel school and in her young, she was a talent hunter. His dad (Sakaki Yusho) used to be a scientist for most of Yuya's life, working in the R&D department of a big company to develop equipment and improve dueling entertainment. His true calling was to be a pro duelist, but many circumstances let to him only doing that until Yuya was much older. Those circumstances were first when his mother got sick when Yuya was 4 and then when she died a year later. The life of a pro duelist demanded a lot of time and Yusho wanted to be there for his children. Even his work as a scientist not always allowed that and many times he and his brothers came to be in the care of his maternal grandfather (the owner of the duel school).

They spend a lot of time at the duel school and because of that they became pretty good at dueling. Eventually each of his brothers took a liking to one specific type of summoning method and pendulum summoning because it was Yuya's favorite. Yuya learned all of them really well and may mix all types of summoning, although his preferred one was still pendulum summons.

When their mother died, the three older brothers decided to take a lot of Yuya's care in their hands so their dad wouldn't worry about the younger child. With the years that feeling of caring for him turned into a protective instinct almost like that of a parent. As they grew older and Yuya required less attention their relationship once again returned to one of simple brothers and less parent-child. However, even as just brothers Yuto, Yuri and Yugo would fight for his attention, which was something siblings of close ages are prone to do (in this case even more so because they were triplets). Yuzu could not really understand that kind of sibling relationship as she had always been an only child and all her friends (namely her Yuya and Gongenzaka) have been only-child too. Even when Serena came to live with them, the other girl was already independent and self-sufficient. Yuzu only considered her a close friend, not a sister.

Listening to the other talk about his brothers showed Yuzu another difference between this Yuya and the one she knew. By the end of the war, her Yuya had started to like all his counterparts, with this one Yuzu could see he loved his brothers very much.

Sadly, his story wasn't a happy one. On Yuya's 14th birthday an experiment gone wrong resulted in the destruction of this Yuya's original dimension. His father, already prepared for something like this to happen, as he had been a part of the experiment, created a machine (World Illusion) to send him and his brothers back in time to search for a powerful card to stop the catastrophe from happening. The machine had already been affected by the destruction and it could only send one of them. His brothers sacrificed themselves and chose him without his input to save his life.

After that came an abridged version of how he meet some people of the past (Sawatari Shingo and Kurosaki Shun), some people of his time who were also sent to to the past (Akaba Reiji) and some people of different dimensions (Shiunin Sora and the bad guys); and how he managed to defeat the main boss with the help of the spirits of his brothers who weren't completely gone after World Illusion, but once again sacrificed themselves so he could win. After a great duel with the Reiji of his dimension, the two of them decided to leave that world as they felt they didn't belong there because both were time travelers. He doesn't remember much about his time trying to find G.O.D. creators (or at least that's what he said), and his most recent memory after leaving his universe was of waking up in a cave with three worried older brothers looking at him.

His brothers told him everything they did to bring him to this universe, including the sacrifice of the Yuya of this universe.

"I'm really sorry about that," he said with a regretful face, "I eventually saw the news and read about everything he did to end the war, about his philosophy as a dueltainer and how it's important to smile so everyone can enjoy duels. He sounded like an awesome guy."

"He was," said Yuzu with a sad little smile. She looked at the Yuya in front of her and after listening to everything he went through and thinking about their interactions so far she came to a conclusion, "I get the feeling you may be similar to him." She said with the first real smile since coming here.

Yuya smiled at her and continued his story. At first he was mad at his brothers because of the awful things they did and gave them the silent treatment for almost two weeks.

"Really?" asked a surprised Yuzu, "I thought you would be happy to be alive and all together again."

"I was happy, I am happy even now," said Yuya, "but I am also mad at them. They were being huge hypocrites because they made me live without them not once, but twice and when they had the chance to change things, they brought me here without considering my opinion first, as always. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I had already accepted to live on my own back in my universe, so I still don't forgive them for that one. Maybe in another few years and after many presents I will."

Now that surprised Yuzu even more. She knew almost everything the guys did to bring their Yuya here and how much they loved their brother. The normal feeling must be to feel sad because their little brother was mad at them, but a part of her was pleased with this development. Yuto, Yuri and Yugo deserved some kind of punishment for everything they did.

They decided to stay in the cave until things calmed down a little after the end of the war. After some months of living in the woods, they went to a small town in the Fusion Dimension to hopefully live quiet lives. They never got the chance because Reiji found them almost as soon as they settled there.

"Reiji!" shouted Yuzu, "He knew about you all this time?"

Yuzu thought about that a little more and it made sense. She was here now because Reiji told here to come and it was impossible the CEO of Akaba Corporation couldn't find the Sakaki brothers considering his money and influence in all dimensions, but to know he knew about them since the beginning… For God's sake, he even spoke at Yuya's funeral when apparently he had already found them, thought an angry Yuzu.

"Yes," said Yuya with a sweet smile on his face.

That's interesting, thought Yuzu after seeing the smile, could it be…?

Reiji found them quickly and took them to Akaba headquarters, where it was discovered Zarc wasn't completely gone as they suspected.

"You know about Zarc, right? What he did? Who he was?"

She nodded. During the final battle the Professor told them everything as an effort to gain time, a wasteful effort because in the end he lost.

Part of the reason his brothers did everything they did was because one way or another they were going to get involved with the Professor's plans. He wasn't going to let them live peaceful lives with the threat of Zarc reawakening over him. According to the original concept plan of the ARC Area Project, there was a possibility that when reuniting the worlds, Ray and Zarc would reunite as well, but the probability was so little that this brought the need to develop Revival Zero; a specific project with the objective of reviving his daughter.

When his brothers read about all of that and decided to bring him to this universe, it was possible Zarc would disappear forever as theoretically none of his spirit would remain. Some weeks after he woke up in this universe, they discovered that the demon duelist was still inside him. They managed to keep him sleeping and when Akaba Corporation captured them, analysis showed Zarc remained in this universe through his connection with his ace monsters, the dragons of the original Yuto, Yugo, Yuri and Yuya.

The destruction of the cards and separation of them proved to be impossible as the cards seemed impervious to any damage and they just magically reappeared back in his deck. Yuya himself didn't have any type of negative reaction and didn't feel anything from the cards when dueling… except when using solid vision. Seeing his monsters with solid vision gave him a bad feeling, his head would get all fuzzy and according to everyone else he would start to act different. Reiji thought this was due to the unification of the four dimensions, in a subconscious level Zarc also wanted to become one. The theory was if Yuya continued dueling, being in a casual or competitive way with any type of solid vision, at some point he may absorb his brothers and become Zarc with or without his conscious choice. As of right now dueling seemed to be one of the catalysts that may reawake Zarc, so he has decided to stop it forever.

"Really?" said Yuzu, "You will never duel again? But you love it." Yuzu can't say she knew this Yuya as well as her own, but the more he talked, the more she can idenfity common stuff and duling appeared to be one as such.

"I do love it. It's fun and entertaining and when I was a kid I wanted to be a dueltainer like my dad, but keeping Zarc sleeping is more important to protect this world, and it's not like it will be forever, just until we can find a more permanent solution that doesn't include my death."

Yuzu wasn't 100% convinced of that and her face must have given her away because Yuya gave her an understanding smile.

"It's okay. Technically I can play a duel or two every other time, just without solid vision and in a really casual way. If you are interested, we could duel right now? We never got the chance in my universe and I always wanted to defeat a pro duelist." That make her laugh out loud.

"As if you could defeat me, let me tell you I was better than the other you and I'm a pro duelist with a lot of experience, defeating someone who duels every other day will be easy," Yuzu didn't want to sound harsh, but his jab remined her of her Yuya and she never held back against her friend.

"You know nothing of my moves because I'm from a different universe, you'll be the one to lose," it seemed her words didn't bother him at all.

At that moment, Yuzu realized she could become friends with this other Yuya. It would be a constant reminder that her friend was gone, for sure, but maybe she could gain a new one. Another realization was she really wanted to duel him. At her last duels that feeling had been missing; the will to play. Right now, she was looking forward to this. Then, Yuzu thought about something he said.

"Did we know each other back in your universe? You just said we never got the chance to duel." He did mention some familiar names when talking about his home universe, but never her own.

"Yeah… you were really important to me and my brothers," he said while looking at a window as if lost in thought. After a moment his gaze returned to her.

"Let's continue, there's still some things I want to tell you."

The only sure thing right now from preventing Zarc from reawakening was his not dueling. The scientists from Akaba Corporation weren't convinced that was enough to prevent a catastrophe from happening and thought it was better to simple put him down. His brothers obviously would not let that happen and were thinking of escaping. This time keeping an even lower profile, after all, they did manage to stay under the radar for many months and now they knew how to theoretically keep Zarc sleeping. The turning point was just when a battle was about to start, Reiji stopped everyone and decided to reach an agreement with them. It was in the best interest of humanity because at the end of the day loosing the brothers meant living with a constant fear of Zarc and killing anyone was completely out of the question; his company will no longer consider that an option.

Akaba Corporation wanted to keep a constant watch over all of them (because wherever Yuya went, his brothers came too) and still continue analyzing the issue. What they wanted was to live normal and peaceful lives without any threat of death, and so Reiji gave them this place and relocated them to this village some three years ago.

At the beginning, they were confined in the house. No one wanted them to be recognized as the Sakaki Yuya of this world. They decided to resume their education via online courses, Yuya never actually managed to finish middle school, and the other three took some college classes because mentally they were four years older. After some months, Yugo was becoming crazy and went out without permission (Yuto almost killed him), since nothing bad happened his brothers started going out more, eventually gaining jobs at the town. Yuya's the only one who can't leave the house as that would be a breach of the agreement with Akaba Corporation.

"Well, that doesn't seem fair," said Yuzu with a frowning face.

"We know Zarc can wake up if I duel, but there could be other ways it may happen. When living in the woods we didn't had any major issues. On the other hand, at Akaba headquarters we had some… hiccups, probably because of the amount of people. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"Then the other guys should also stay here, why is it only you?"

"Because I told them to," said Yuya.

Yuzu wasn't expecting that answer.

"I'm not completely happy with this whole situation, but I wasn't going to make my brothers suffer for it as well. Everything they did was so we could be together and we can somewhat have that here. They deserve a break from feeling guilty."

"You're too nice, Yuya."

"It's not bad in here. The estate is larger than you think and we have a garage, a greenhouse and a big lab for me to entertain myself. I can also ride one of Yugo's D-Wheels in the roads at night. Reiji visits a lot and sometimes brings Reira, and my brothers take turns leaving the house during the day so I don't get lonely."

Yuzu got a lot information from that and didn't know what to ask about first.

"Then one of your brothers is here right now?" she asked first. She has been here a lot of time and hasn't seen anyone but Yuya.

"Yuri, but don't worry, he's at the greenhouse. It's his favorite place in the house and usually spends all evening there. He'll probably get out close to dinner time when the others arrive." Now that brought something else to think about.

"The others…?" said Yuzu under her breath, but still Yuya must have listened to her.

"Yes, if you want to see them."

Does she want to? The first year after the war she was angry with the three brothers, especially Yuto and Yugo whom she got to know and interacted more. With time, her anger mellowed out as she started to understand why they did it, and by thinking they probably helped Yuya to not become Zarc. Her Yuya would have preferred to be dead than destroy the world. Now, she knew Zarc was still a threat and this Yuya was the one suffering the most for that. Yuya told her he still hasn't forgiven them and maybe that was the only punishment they got after everything they did. They certainly needed someone else to throw them angry words.

"I want to."

"Great! Will you stay the whole weekend? Reiji told me that was the original plan and I still want that duel with you." He said with a big smile on his face.

"Let me think about it, I will decide after I see the guys."

"Fair enough. Do you want more tea or some water?"

"Water, please."

"I'll be right back," Yuya left the room.

She wasn't actually thirsty, she just wanted a moment to herself. She didn't know how much time has passed since she arrived, but now her head was full of information. Some of the questions she had since the end of the war have finally been answered and new ones have come to her mind, not all of them for Yuya. Maybe he knew what she wanted to know. Looking at the room more closely she now took the chance to see the photo in the bureau beside her. A photo of the four brothers together, probably someone's birthday because of the half eaten cake.

"I'm back, here you go, my lady," said Yuya who gave her a glass of water.

"Thanks, Yuya," she said and took a sip. Yuya took his seat once again in the couch beside her and looked at her.

"You can ask me more questions, it's okay."

"Are you sure? It seems to me the only thing you have done is answer my questions, don't you have some for me? There must be a reason why I'm here."

"There is a reason and I do have one question, but it can wait. You first."

"Fine, why am I here?"

"That has to do with my question, pick another one."

"Fine! Why exactly are you keeping your existance a secret? If it were that important you wouldn't have invited me here. Will I have to sign a confidencial agreement or will Reiji's people follow me from now on so I don't reveal the secret?"

Yuya laughed at her.

"I'm serious!"

"Sorry, it's funny, but I guess Reiji can be like that. Basically, the agreement we have with Akaba Corporation states that I can't interact with many people. This is to keep Zarc under control. Also, we can't have anyone knowing the danger of Zarc, it's best for the new world to live in ignorance." Considering nobody from the new world remembered anything of the demon duelist, it was for the best.

"Truthfully… it's a little strange to interact with all of you," he continued while touching the back of his head. "I suppose you asked that to know if you could tell other people about us, right?"

Yuzu was surprised, this Yuya was more clever than her own have been. She didn't think it was only because of the additional age, since meeting him properly she has noticed little things that make her believe he knew more than he let on. Probably an effect of interacting with Yuri and/or Yuto his whole life.

"Strange how?" she decided to ignore his question.

"I can't speak for my brothers because I don't know their whole thoughts on the matter. For myself it's how I felt in my own universe when I was in the past… like I don't belong there. It's a bit cowardly, but I read about this universe's Yuya and everything he did, and I don't want people to see me just to notice I'm not the one they knew. I had that problem with Reiji when we first met. He was there for almost all the things my counterpart did and I also knew a Reiji back in my own universe; you have expectations from the other they can't fullfil. Also… I don't want people to feel sad." He gave her a little sad smile.

Yuzu felt a little bad. Yuya was correct with everything he said. Hadn't she been comparing this Yuya with the one she knew all this time? At the end of the day, the Yuya everyone knew was long gone and meeting this Yuya will be like meeting a whole new person, but with a lot of things expected from him.

"You seem to get along with Reiji now," she said to change the subject a little.

"Yes! He's amazing. He kind of gave me a part-time job at Akaba Corporation to keep me busy and a lot of resources here because I enjoy programming and trying new stuff. He visits a lot to discuss my projects and we have a lot of fun. He also introduced me to his little brother Reira, he's a nice kid. Reiji is a really good friend."

Yuya had a really sweet smile and his eyes were sparkling while saying all of this. Yuzu was sure of her guess from a moment ago. She thought it should bother her in some way, but the truth was the guy in front of her was Sakaki Yuya, the nice and smart guy she just met today. Any feelings she had for her friend Yuya were first and foremost friendship, maybe in the future things could had been something more, but there's no point to dwell on stuff that will never happen.

She may need to talk with Reiji to acertain his own feelings on the matter, although knowing how the two of them talked about science stuff (something the original Yuya never gave any interest), maybe Reiji wasn't confusing this Yuya with the other one. After all, Reiji has known this Yuya for longer than the original one from this universe. There shouldn't be anything to worry about. She will mostly scream at the young CEO for keeping it a secret for so long.

"There's another reason why it's strange to meet you, Yuzu."

She just gave him a questioning look. Yuya got up, went to the furniture at the back of the room and took the photography resting there.

"Here, take a look. We don't actually have any pictures of our childhood as nothing except some cards from our universe came with us. This is a recreation of one of our favorite photos. It's a painting, Yuri is pretty good at drawing."

Yuzu took the photo. It was another birthday celebration with the four brothers and their parents in it. A man whom she recognized as Sakaki Yusho was standing at the back of a couch holding a birthday cake. Standing up in the couch at the left was a young Yuto, opposite him at the far right was a young Yuri half looking at where the picture was being taken, and beside him was young Yugo with a big smile and giving a peace sign. Between Yugo and Yuto was a sitting woman holding baby Yuya in her arms, baby Yuya was also giving a big smile for the picture. It was a cute picture, however, for Yuzu the woman was the most interesting person. Up until that moment Yuya hadn't said much about his mother. Now that she looked at her, she kind of remided her of…

"Is that me?" Older for sure, but she has the same hairstyle and face.

"Yeah, our mom, Sakaki Yuzu. Before she married she was Hiiragi Yuzu," said Yuya. "This was the reason why it's a little strange to reach out to you. I don't remember her much, people told me a lot about her and at grandpa's duel school, You Show, there used to be a lot of pictures of her."

This went beyond strange, this was bizarre, a twilight experience.

"This is— I don't know what to say."

"It's okay, I just wanted you to know. If my brothers ever treated you or your counterparts strange, from what I know you have three of them and they all look like you, then it was probably because of this."

Yuzu just returned the photo and Yuya went to put it back to its place. Maybe she will think more about it when she has the chance to process it. For now she can only say for certain that Yuya, Yugo, Yuto and Yuri really were from a different universe.

"Do you have more questions?"

"Not really, guess that last revelation was more than I expected," Yuzu let out a little laugh.

"Good, don't hesitate to ask in case you come up with more questions. Now, the reason why you are here. I told you before I asked Reiji to invite you for the weekend and the reason for that is because… are you okay?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I can't duel with any type of solid vision, but I still watch it a lot. I enjoy dueling and I'm a big fan of yours."

"You are?" Yuzu wasn't expecting to hear that. She was somewhat famous in the pro dueling league and has many fans, she just never thought Yuya could be a fan of hers. Guess you never know who is watching.

"Yes! You're my favorite dueltainer and I saw your last couple of matches. They didn't felt the same as usual. Considering how close we are to the date I came to this universe, I've been thinking if it's my fault for coming here—"

"No! That's not—" she interrupted him, but couldn't say anything else. In some way it was because of the date, it was close to Yuya's death and she still missed her dear friend.

"I'd lie if I say it's not because of the date, but it's not because of you, and that's 100% the truth. I don't blame you for what happened, you were an uninvolved party in all of this. The thing is I miss my friend, just that. We were friends since diapers and we wanted to become pro duelists together." When saying this, she looked directly at the other; the Yuya in front of her.

I have been letting down many people, she thought.

"Then, I don't know if coming here will help you with that, it will probably make it worse," said Yuya a little sad.

"No, well, I don't know yet. Up until this moment I don't feel like this was a mistake… maybe it will be exactly what I need," said Yuzu with conviction in her voice.

"If not at least I hope you will have a nice vacation," said Yuya.

At that moment both heard the sound of a motorcycle closing by.

"Yuto and Yugo are back from work," said a new voice from the entrance of the living room.

Looking at the direction of the voice, Yuzu found a guy exactly like Yuya but with a different hairstyle and dressed up in jeans and a fuchsia shirt; it was Yuri.

"It seems we have a visit. Welcome to our home, Hiiragi Yuzu," said Yuri with a smirk on his face.

Author notes

There was a lot of exposition which included many of my headcanons of the manga and anime (and maybe a little bit of pendulumshipping, but it's not majorly important XD)

This chapter and the next are connected so my final thought will be until the last chapter :)

The picture Yuzu saw is an official "photo" from the manga. Just search "yugioh arc v manga sakaki family" and you'll find it.

Thanks for reading!