A/N: Imma be honest, I might re-edit this chapter in the future as I'm not not sure if this is what I really want at the moment, but I feel like it's fine now. Summary has also been remade.

Also, thanks for the comment, Bluedada! Happy to know the way I write him is okay :3

Btw, please read Ch 2 first before this! (I edited it around the flashbacks part)

Disclaimer: I dont own YGO Arc V


"Sometimes real superheroes
live in the hearts of small children
fighting big battles."

-Anonymous


Train Station Bench

It was night. The white cat from earlier just still sat there, cold.

"Huh, a kitty!" A kid exclaimed, approaching her.

'Ugh, kids… as if my day could be any worse…' The cat thought.

Without any warning, the kid picked her up. Surprised, the bemused feline scratched the kid on the face and squirmed, making the kid let her go.

"That hurt…! Bad cat!" The kid said, but didn't cry as it didn't hurt as much. 'That I am.' The cat thought, smirking (if they can, anyway).

"Tch, leave it alone. Come here." An adult wiped the blood from the kid's face away before leaving. "We'll get that treated later.

Suddenly, a figure only seen by the cat appeared beside it. "Y'know, I'd follow them if I were you, Misty." The figure suggested.

'Ack, it's you…' The cat, Misty, said. 'Nice to see you again, Blue. But I'm not doing that.'

Blue smiled. "Well, they might actually lead you to master." She said, turning into her cat form before purring at Misty.

Misty stepped back, not really liking when other cats purred at her. 'What makes you say that? Hmm… what about that other random guy, maybe he can lead me to master as well!' she scoffed.

"Hmm, just trust me; I'm not here for no reason." Yuri had actually sent her. It shall be explained later. "I'm supposed to guard Master. Plus, there'll be a revealing of something VERY important in a few hours or less, meow! As I said, it's important, you shouldn't miss it."

'Nah, that kid seemed pretty annoying.'

"Suit yourself, then. It's already about 8:45 pm, so I have to get going. I can't miss this."

'Bye.' Misty shrugged then went on the bench and snuggled to herself in bagel cat form.

Blue Cat just gaped at her. "Oh well, you'll be alone here, then. In the dead of night, cold," she paused, "alone… unsure of where master is, meow."

Misty woke herself up (even though she hasn't fallen asleep yet) and had a bored look on her face. 'Sigh…' She got up, 'Fine.' stretched, and went off the bench.

"Great! Oh, no, they're entering a car, c'mon!"

With the kid

"I still can't believe that cat scratched me… why do you think so, Shun?"

"I dunno. And frankly, I don't care. Also, you don't have to touch every animal you see." Shun sighed. "Though, you remind me of Ruri. And Serena." 'Still can't believe Reiji adopted Reira behind our backs…'

As Reira got on, Shun was about to close the door. Reira then asked, "How so?"

With the cats

'Almost there…!' Misty panted and panted, running towards the car. 'Ack, I don't think I can make it!'

"You can do it, Postrophe, meow!"

'Says you who for some reason is riding my back!'

And with that, Misty managed to hop in the car with a small squeal as Shun just closed the door, her tail almost getting stuck. Blue just manifested in her metaphysical form (still as a cat) and floated inside with ease before sitting on the floor. "Hey, Misty, they can't see me either, by the way."

'Duly noted, Blue.' Misty hid under the driver's seat.

"...B."

'What?'

"B. You can call me B. It's a shorter nickname derived from 'Blue', meow." Blue explained.

'Huh… alright then, B.'

"Hey, Reira, I think I just saw a cat enter. Oh well." Shun shrugged it off. "Must've been my sleepiness."


Int.-Barrett's Abode-The Girls' Shared Room-8 PM

This was the girls' old bedroom, which had two separate bunk beds, two on each side. They all shared this when they were younger.

Right now, the four of them were getting ready to go to bed, with Ruri chatting with Yuzu about some older memories while Rin was trying her best to convince Serena to comb her hair before going to bed.

Said girl thought she was going to sleep on the streets tonight, maybe sneak her way into an unused room somewhere, but nonetheless, here she was.

"No."

"Please? I'm just gonna comb it!"

Serena rolled her eyes. "Yeah, then braid it, or maybe some other hairstyle. But that's Yuzu and Ruri's thing! Why can't you ask them!? I'm sure they'd gladly say yes!"

"We do it all the time when you're not home," Rin scoffed. "Now I wanna try it with you!" She said, pointing at Serena who threatened to jump off the window (though they know she won't get injured) if need be.

As Serena was about to open the window, someone knocked on their door before entering.

It was Reiji, who was wearing a coat. "Girls. Wear your coats and/or jackets. I need you all to come with me somewhere."

"Why, you too scared to go alone?"

Reiji sighed. Serena always had to be blunt. "No, just… come. I'll be in Barrett's car."

Thus, the girls all changed into their outfits from earlier except for Serena whom changed into a beige, knitted sweatshirt (the left side was tucked), black leggings, tan combat boots, and a gray beanie (she insisted on having it on).

Her new outfit was courtesy of Rin.

While she put her boots on, she looked at a jewelry box on a table and opened it; there, she found a bracelet with a star-shaped blue gemstone on it.

'My sisters and I all have these kinds of bracelets, for some reason… Only I left mine here.'

She shrugged, wore it, then went downstairs. 'I'll ask Barrett about this thing.'

She then opened Barrett's fridge and found a can of beer, took it, opened it, then drank some. She turned to go out but instead found Barrett glaring at her. Surprised, she spat some of the beer out.

"Psshk, what the heck!?" She exclaimed.

Barrett just snatched the beer from her hands, wiped the mouth of it, then drank it. "Not for you."

"I know, but I just wanted some, okay? Anyway, why do Yuzu, Rin, Ruri, and I all have bracelets like this?" She showed him the bracelet on her other hand.

"I don't really know. Leo just told me to give them to you girls," he explained.

Not really knowing what to get from that info, she just answered, "Okay, then." And walked away.

When she did, Yuzu approached them and saw Barrett opening some photo albums.

He never told them, but he always saw them as his kids. In the first few months, though, they were a handful. Ruri, Rin, and Yuzu always tried to calm and hang out with Serena. He had to tell them multiple times to leave her alone, especially when she threw another tantrum. He also had to take them to a therapist to hopefully help them recover, and as of now, only Serena didn't.

Eventually, he got attached to them. It hurt him when, after the girls turned ten, he had to separate them from their brothers. Ruri was first (since she's the eldest). She was sent to a school for girls to teach her proper manners, a good leader (she was meant to be one in the future), and basically, almost, like a princess.

Rin and Serena though were sent to a different school but together. The place they were sent to exclusively focused on brains and physical training. So, at that age, Rin was taught complex things such as math, but more of tech/cyber things while Serena was in physical education-related things like running, fighting/martial arts, and such and combined it with ballet so that she'd be more flexible. And although all three were taught the basics of self-defense, Serena was the one taught about it and more the most.

This made the three the youngest (at the same time best) students in the exclusive parts of their schools.

The schedules for the three, though, were the same in the way that the morning classes were the usual subjects their age was supposed to learn, while afternoon was when the exclusives were taught.

Yuzu, though, was sent to a normal school together with Reiji and were sad when each had to go their separate ways. Even Shun felt sad for Serena, whom he always held a grudge against.

He also had to hand Reiji and Yuzu over to a man called Shuzo Hiiragi who took care of them well.

Before he knew it, he was left with no one except Shun; he's still proud of him, even if now he just ended up being a detective, he was one of the best.

Where Ruri was, she–and all other girls there–were treated like princesses, in Rin's, it was like a normal school experience, but even if Rin was there with Serena's, there were bullies.

They usually bullied her because she was the youngest and said she shouldn't even be here yet.

Unbeknownst to her though, that was one reason why she was sent there specifically. It was not only for her to learn how to fight back, but to strengthen her self-esteem.

And boy did that work out well and as expected, but alas didn't help her psychological health, if anything, it made it worse.

He remembered Rin and Serena were like best friends with each other, with Rin saving Serena whenever she caught her getting bullied (Serena would usually hide it from her), treat her injuries if she had any, helped Serena recover when sick, and helped her study/do projects when needed.

But all it took was one field trip to end that strong, almost unbreakable bond…

"Barrett-san, the girls, Reiji, and I are going somewhere," Yuzu said, snapping Barrett out of his train of thoughts.

"Oh, right, right." He closed the album he was currently looking at, one that had a picture of the six of them sleeping together.

Yuzu saw that and commented, "You miss those days, huh?"

He nodded. "Yeah… Yeah, I do. I feel like I never should've sent the other three to those schools…"

"Well, I'm not in their place to say anything about that," she sighed. "I'll never know how or what they actually felt while they were there."

"Yuzu! Coming or not!?" They heard a voice call out.

"You didn't have to yell as loud as the way you did, Serena…" another person sighed. "And Reiji-nii, can I bring my laptop?"

"No, Rin. You don't have to bring it everywhere," Reiji said.

"Aw, man…" Rin pouted. "Fine, then. Serena, let me tie your hair!"

"What? No!"

Yuzu grumbled, "Them as always." She straightened her back and smiled. "I ought to go now, bye."

"Bye…" Barret trailed off as Yuzu walked away.

Later

When they exited the car, they were met with a massive building that looked like it hadn't been used for a few years. It also smelled like fresh concrete.

Serena's hair was also tied into a normal ponytail (Rin had something to do with this).

"Where are we?" Yuzu asked.

"Where you girls will find your real purpose and who you guys–er, girls, truly are," Reiji answered as he tried to unlock the door, fumbling with the keys.

"Let me," Serena said, approaching him. He just sighed and let her unlock the door.

After Serena unlocked the door, Reiji led them inside. "Follow me."

He led them to the Second Floor and went inside a room. He opened some drawers in search of a certain file.

"Where…" he mumbled until he finally found it. "Here it is." He took the file and went to a table.

He dumped the file on the table. The file itself was thick and had lots of papers in it. Reiji sorted it all out.

"What's this…?" Rin asked as she took two pieces of paper that had the words, "Experiment 1, 'RAY', Attempt 3" and the other, "Experiment 2, 'Z-ARC', Attempt 2" respectively.

"Those," Reiji began, "Are the files that belong to Ray and Z-Arc."

Ruri picked some other papers up as did Yuzu. Serena just decided to explore some other parts of the room.

"She–Why does she look like us!?" Serena suddenly asked, *cough* yelled to them, pointing at a picture of a young girl around the age of 16-17 with maroon hair tied into pigtails putting an arm around someone, but the picture of the person beside her was ripped.

"That there, Serena, is Ray; Ray Akaba," Reiji sighed.

"Akaba? As in our old family name?" Ruri asked, referring to the "our" as she and her sisters.

Reiji nodded. "Yes. Our dad used to experiment and genetically engineer human genes, which shouldn't surprise any of you."

"Yeah, we know of dad's sick profession," Yuzu jeered. They loved their dad, but Yuzu doesn't really find genetic engineering all that cool and doesn't like their dad as much because of it. It experiments and modifies beings' genes and DNAs, so there's a sick part to it. If one thing goes wrong, you might end up with something that shouldn't even exist.

"He wanted to help those who had cancer. He also wanted to find a way to stop genetic/hereditary diseases, physical deformities/birth defects–like the cleft palate, down syndrome, congenital heart defects and the like–and give parents reassurance of a perfect or at least a healthy or normal child. A good motive, don't you all agree?" Reiji asked them, and all nodded. Serena joined them as this started to pique her interest.

He then continued, smiling, "His plan of perfecting the human race was the reason why he wanted to become a genetic engineer. He researched about Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, also known as 'CRISPR'–the easiest, cheapest, and most precise method of DNA manipulation."

"Hmm then why don't we hear nor know much about it now?" Serena asked, curious.

"Because of a certain… accident."

"Accident?" The girls excluding Serena piped.

"Yes. Our father tried it himself. He tried to genetically engineer two children, a male and a female. As the name from the file Rin held earlier suggests, it took three attempts to make a perfect girl, and two for the boy," he explained, showing them some notes Leo himself had written on a newspaper article.

"Ray was the girl's name and Zarc was the guy's. Ray was his perfect child. The other two attempts used some other people's DNA. He tried his best and waited for the embryos to turn to fetuses, but a few hours after the first was born, it died. The second lasted longer, about one and a half weeks, but died as well. The first attempt with the male lasted as long as the second female but as you expect, it also died."

"I can only imagine how disgusting DNA manipulation can actually be," Ruri gagged.

Reiji agreed with her. "Exactly. Anyway, at the third attempt of the female, he used his own and our mother's genes as the main sequence and convinced one of his friends and that friend's wife to give some of their own and they agreed. And since he was about to make his own child–unnaturally…– he became more careful and precise. Because of that, he was successful this time.

"Wait, if dad's marriage to mom was arranged, then, why'd she agree to this?" Rin asked.

"It was said that our mom hesitated at first. But agreed regardless. And she was happy when Ray was born, anyway."

He then took Ray's file. "Mom and dad were both proud when Ray was born. Both her and Zarc were 'put' in the mothers' wombs instead of a tube like where the others were put. The process is the same with surrogate mothers, except they were the real mothers—" he was cut off by Serena gagging.

"Oh Ra," she gagged again, "that–well that sounds very disgusting. I almost feel bad for being sorry for being the reason he died!"

"Again, it wasn't your fault." Reiji sighed. 'And where the heck is Shun? He should be here by now…'

"Wait, does that mean Ray was our… sister?" Rin asked.

"To back that up, what happened to her?" Ruri queried as well.

"We'll get to that. Anyway, Ray and Zarc were born after nine full, regular, months; Leo then took both of them to his lab right after they were born for observation. After a week, they seemed normal, fine, healthy babies. And after a full month, he happily told the scientific community about them and they rejoiced. I mean, who wouldn't? The first set of successful genetically engineered babies were born." He pointed to a picture of Leo with a bunch of other scientists.

"He quit after this, focusing on the invention of RSV, also known as Real Solid Vision, with the help of the characters and cards from the game 'Duel Monsters' as subjects, instead as it's 'simpler' so that he can monitor their growth and decided to continue once the two successfully matures."

"Is that them? They look quite cute." Yuzu interjected, pointing to a picture of a baby Zarc and Ray.

"Yep. Except, he had different motives for each one." He adjusted his glasses so that they hid his eyes.

"Of course this'd happen," Serena stated bluntly.

Reiji ignored her and continued, "Ray was for a good one. She was perfect and brought cancer-curing DNA that can be modified into medicine. She herself was immune to almost all and any form of cancer."

"For Zarc, though…" he paused. "He was supposed to be very strong and suited for the military. Without Zarc's parents' consent, though, he wasn't just perfect–he was too perfect. He was athletic and smart, though both were geniuses and had extraordinary IQs."

"Did they give Zarc to his parents?" Ruri asked.

"He did. He and Zarc's dad were best friends anyway, so he can still meet the child whenever he pleases. This resulted in Zarc and Ray becoming best friends as both also had high expectations from both parties. It was even concluded that, in the future, they might bear the first child of the first CRISPR subjects."

"Still disgusting, but quite fascinating," Rin admitted.

Reiji nodded and smiled then gave a deep sigh and adjusted his glasses again while still maintaining a poker face. "Everything was all fun and games until… Zarc lost it."

"What happened?" Yuzu piped.

"The poor guy was trained since he was three then forced the poor guy's parents to send him to the military after turning thirteen. He came home a hero even if he only stayed 'till he turned 14 because he couldn't handle it."

"Who in this cursed land would send their child out there at such a young age, anyway!? Who do they think they are, Hitler?" Rin interrupted.

"That's the point. He acted fine after getting therapy for PTSD, but the fact still remains. After three years, he's about 17 by then, and he was getting trained again. He lost it in the middle of training as everything came back to him. He started to beat, assault, and hurt people anytime he wanted."

"And one more thing, they both somehow understood and communicated with holograms and loved being around them. Zarc would ride around and put it on for show," he pointed to a picture of Zarc riding one of his dragons, a red-colored one, as an example. "While Ray treated them like her friends by talking and playing with them."

"But when all this happened, Zarc stole what they called a Duel Disk, 'summoned' four dragons and used his connection and abilities to command them to attack people like he was the devil himself; he had turned into a madman."

The girls except Serena all just gasped.

Reiji just continued, "Ray had already noticed the changes in him weeks before and told dad to stop Zarc's training, but he didn't listen which caused all that to happen. His strength combined with intelligence, other upgrades such as quick regeneration and dragons made him indomitable. He killed all within his sight and way. The military couldn't do anything, either… Ray wanted to interject but dad wouldn't let her. He kept her away from all the trouble."

He then took a USB and plugged it to a computer which was connected to a projector and played a video showing Leo tapping on something on his arm. The thing beeped and a large projector behind Leo let a huge monster out, akin to "Wattaildragon", and immediately fought a larger white and light-green colored dragon. Both let out shrieks and a lot of light. Wattail seemed to be winning, but another dragon, a darker, black and dark-purple-colored one appeared and ripped Wattail's tail off before ripping the rest of Wattail to shreds before it dissipated into golden light.

After a while, even some of the military came and tried to ward him off with Real Solid Vision by placing random cards from 'Duel Monsters' on a disk-like object on their arm.

"As you all see, dad and the military tried to ward him off with some RSV monsters, but the technology itself was just a baby at the time. It wasn't the best and Zarc destroyed all his machines easily."

The girls were at a loss of words as they watched the video play.

Reiji paused the video and carried on. "Ray had finally escaped at some point and…"

"And?" Rin asked eagerly.

"Well, Shun's supposed to continue this part…" Reiji sighed.

"Shun?" Ruri asked. "Out of curiosity, was he made with CRISPR too?"

Reiji gave a small chuckle. "He's not, he was a normal baby, together with me, but you four aren't."

"Tch, of course…" Serena blurted. "It became obvious at some point." She shrugged.

"Wait, Shun's 'sposed to go here?" Yuzu asked.

"Yeah, I called for him to come earlier; I dunno what's taking him so long…"

"Aha!" They heard someone yell. "I missed Misty!" By that, you all should know who said it.

"Oh frick, I left Misty…!" Serena yelped, hitting her head. "H-how could I…?"

Reiji looked at her weirdly. "Who's Misty?"

"A cat she kept and hung out with," Rin told him. "She's quite attached to it… wait… oh no."

"What?"

"We left the fucking cat at the station!" Rin screamed in realization.

"Exactly…" Serena growled. "Misty…"

"We'll find her tomorrow, okay?" Rin said to her.

Ruri and Yuzu stepped in and said, "We'll help, too!"

"Thanks…"

Reiji just sighed at them.


With Shun

"What should we do with it?" Shun asked, holding a white cat with some oranges by the nape of its neck.

The cat itself was glaring at him with blue eyes that meant death and had a face full of anger and frustration. It reached its paws out in an attempt to bat and claw his face, but Shun pulled her away and didn't reach him.

'You…! You said we weren't gonna get caught!' Misty telepathically yelled to B.

"Yeah… sorry. I didn't expect the kid to drop her bear and see you, y'know!?" B countered.

"Don't hurt her, please," Reira begged. "Sure, she almost hurt me earlier, but please don't hurt her."

Shun looked at Reira exasperatedly. "She ran around the car, surprised our driver, which distracted him, by the way, and caused us to crash! Moreover, it's already, like, 9 PM and we're stuck here in the park!"

"Again, it was a bit of my fault too…" Reira trailed off and made a peace sign to Misty and scratched the back of her head. 'Sorry….'

"Uhh, actually, I already found an uber to pick you guys up and is on his way," the driver added.

"Well thanks, I guess! Even with that problem solved, what will we do with this thing?"

"Give her to me," Reira mumbled albeit audibly.

"What?" Shun looked at her confusedly.

"Please, give her to me," Reira repeated.

Shun tsked and handed Misty to Reira. "Alright, then."

Misty hissed at her as Reira hugged her. "It's okay. I'll help find your master," Reira assured the cat.

Misty looked at her with sorrowful eyes, looked away, and just meowed quietly in thanks.

Reira smiled and patted her on the head.

"See? Not so bad," B giggled. Misty just ignored her.

Their uber arrived and they had to pay an extra fee because of Misty. Their original driver then just rode a taxi.

As their uber drove away, Reira whispered, 'Don't worry, cat. I have a feeling I know who your master is.'


A/N: If this feels totes incomplete, it is and is meant to be. Everything will continue next chapter, so don't worry. I also uploaded the edit i forgot to upload for Ch 3, so please read it. I'll also remove the "edited part" things soon so yeah. Oh! Ch 10's edited round the last part, check it out if u want.

I don't think the quote is fitting, but I'll leave it be.

I will continue writing my one-shot now that I got this out, so that should come soon. Cyall soon!
-01, out!