Phantomshipping (Noa x Cyndia x Amane)

Noa wasn't exactly sure what to expect after the network shut down. He had really just expected...nothing. He had thought it would all end, just like that.

He definitely hadn't expected to open his eyes.

There weren't any words to describe the place he was in. It just...was. Anything he could have said to describe it would have had no meaning. The same couldn't be said of the little girl that was kneeling next to him.

She was no older than he was – or at least, no older than he had been when he died the first time. Her long white hair fell creamily across her shoulders and into her round brown eyes. A bright red ribbon gleamed at the back of her head. They stared at each other for a minute. Then a smile spread across her face, and she clapped her hands together.

"Oh, wow! You're actually awake! Miss Cyndia, he's awake!"

Noa squinted, disoriented.

"Where...am I?" he asked.

The girl laughed.

"I have absolutely no idea. We haven't decided what to call it yet. It's not heaven, yet, but it's not a living world, so I like to call it in-between, but Miss Cyndia insists on calling it purgatory, but I don't know what that is, and –"

"Goodness, Amane, you're going to overwhelm him," said an older, almost motherly voice. "Give him a second to get his bearings."

Noa swallowed, and shook his head. Then he sat up. The owner of the other voice was in fact older than the both of them...maybe nineteen? Twenty? Her blonde hair was expertly flipped and styled in an older fashion, dropping down across her fancy green and white dress. Her blue eyes were kind, and Noa was reminded inexplicably of his mother.

"Hello," she said. "My name is Cyndia. This is Amane."

Amane bounced in her spot on her knees, looking extremely excited.

"I-I'm Noa," Noa said after a beat. "Noa Kaiba."

He glanced around him, still unable to describe his location.

"Am I...?"

Cyndia's smile became sad.

"Yes, I'm afraid you are dead," she said. "All of us are. I guess you could call us phantoms."

Noa looked down at himself. He looked alive enough. But judging by his surroundings, they were still definitely in a place with no human meanings. Amane jumped into the gap.

"I'm so glad to meet you! You were here when I got here, you know, but you were sleeping. I thought that was funny because no one sleeps here, and I couldn't get you to wake up. You were just always laying there, never moving or anything, and I thought you would never wake up or maybe you weren't even real, and I got kind of bored and lonely, because it's only me and Miss Cyndia and Miss Cadeline, and Mr. Pandora and Mr. Pegasus –"

"Amane, please, slow down!" Cyndia said with a laugh. "You're confusing him!"

Noa was in fact confused, but Amane's chatter actually made him feel a little better. He had never...actually met anyone that just wanted to talk to him. People had tended to avoid him even before the accident, although that was mostly his own fault for acting so superior.

But then something occurred to him.

"I was...already here?" he said. "Like, I was already dead here?"

Amane nodded quickly, and seemed to be about to launch into another breathless one-sided conversation before Cyndia cut her off.

"Yes, you were," she said. "I was here before you, but one day, you just appeared, like everyone else. But you were sleeping. It took me a while, but I did find you in the world of the living..."

She pointed to the only thing in the landscape that did not defy explanation: something that looked like a low walled well.

"I think when your father put you into the digital world, he accidentally bound down part of your soul as well. Part of you came here, and part of you was stuck there...you were neither alive nor dead for sometime."

The words made Noa feel almost sick at first. But slowly, his chest started to feel lighter and lighter. Was it because he was finally whole? Was it because he had finally accepted that he was dead? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that he couldn't believe how happy he felt right now.

Out of nowhere, Amane gave him a huge hug. He nearly fell over.

"We're going to be best friends, you wait!" she said. "Now that you're awake, you don't have to be alone anymore!"

They might have all been dead. They might have all been phantoms.

But they felt so much more real that Noa's virtual prison. And he knew Amane was right. He wasn't alone anymore. And wasn't that what he had wanted for so, so long?

He could help but laugh. And the sound echoed across the suddenly beautiful, but indescribable landscape.


A/N: Awww! :D Next is Petshipping (Seto x Jonouchi x Otogi).