For Yunalesca10, as part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Mini-Exchange. I played with your prompt a little, and I'm afraid I don't know the dub terribly well so I used the original names, but I hope you like it anyway!
Asuka pulled herself to a standing position, though her limbs ached from the effort. She wanted to close her eyes and sleep in her comfortable bed for a week, but she forced herself to keep them open. Edo was there, even Ryo – and she'd missed him so much since he'd graduated – but there was one notable absence.
She scanned the encroaching crowd. Media first, the cameras would surely have been a draw for him. Then the medical personnel, with the students and teachers drafted in to help with the Dis-Belt victims. Then, with some reluctance, the beach. She wouldn't have put it past him to have just treated the whole thing as a long summer break.
Still, no Fubuki.
There was a gathering that evening in the Blue dining hall. Pegasus span some cover story about testing a prototype system with new cards, and he was charismatic enough that the media swallowed it whole. Asuka should have expected it, really, given what had happened with the journalist she'd spoken to regarding Fubuki in her first year at Duel Academy, but that didn't stop her being disappointed in the adults. Her respect for Pegasus and Principal Samejima dropped a couple more points.
Most of the rest of the students were all too busy finding each other, telling stories, and eating, to care. After the speeches were over, Asuka climbed the steps at the side of the stage to look over the noisy crowd. The girls were all clustered together. She could spot Junko and Momoe at the center. They were fussing over Rei, though, not Fubuki. Where was he?
"Signora Asuka!"
That voice was unmistakeable, even over the hubbub in the hall. Asuka stepped back down. "Professor Cronos, hello. Have you seen my brother?"
Cronos shook his head sadly. "You had the look of one who is searching. Ahimè, it seems Signor Fubuki has not been seen in some time."
"What?" Asuka felt her knees wobble. She steadied herself against the hand rail. She wouldn't fall.
Cronos took her other hand and patted it. "Indeed, he was counted among the missing. Mamma mia… I have just advised that it was not so."
"It can't be…" Asuka thought back frantically. What if they had left him there, in that desolate place of sand and hot wind and monsters? What if he had left to look for her and somehow been crushed in the displacement of buildings and bodies? What if this was just one more cover-up for the Academy's administration? She clenched her hand around the rail and silently cursed.
"Forza, Signora Asuka," Cronos continued with a reassuring smile. "We will find signor Fubuki, you and I."
Cronos had the Academy buildings covered. He had assured Asuka that he had access to grounds that the other teachers might not have checked. Asuka froze, briefly, remembering the vault under the school and the strange secret it had hidden. She trusted Cronos, to a point, after what they had recently been through; but if their efforts were fruitless, she would be sure to re-trace his steps.
She started at the pier. The lighthouse itself was normally off-limits to students, but Cronos had given her the key along with a stern warning. She climbed the spiralling stone steps with determination, and pulled herself easily up the slim metal ladder to the gallery. Asuka's intention had been to scan the island with binoculars, looking for anything new or out of place. However, she kept finding her gaze drawn back to the pier, where so many times she had stood with Ryo, sharing stories of Fubuki or rumours related to his disappearance. Ryo was gone, now, too – though she had seen him just recently, he was strange and distant and cold. Others felt he always had been, but she knew better, and it hurt to see him. Strange that this place could bring people together and tear them apart again so soon.
Other than that, the island could have been as it was the day she had first landed. Everything they had done and seen was a mere ripple on the surface, dissipating under scrutiny. Asuka took one last look before heading back down to the pier, hoping for her eye to land serendipitously on a brightly coloured shirt, or oddly-placed ukulele. It did not.
The tide was out and Asuka could clamber between the timber frames under the decking. She picked up items as she went: a glass bottle with sand-bleached label, a few water-stained Duel Monsters cards, a seaweed-tangled necklace with locket. She idly flipped open the catch on the locket. Whatever picture had been in there had long since been lost to the ocean. Still, a trace of long, dark hair remained at the outermost edges.
Asuka sighed and pressed on, snorkel in hand.
Asuka had stood in front of the abandoned boys' dorm so many times before, willing her brother to emerge from the shadows and say it had all been a joke that had gone too far. She hadn't expected to ever have to do that again. Nor had she particularly wanted to set foot in the place, after what had happened to her there. She let out a pent-up breath and started down the uneven path to the decrepit building. It was still light in the evenings, yet the darkness seemed to grow as she approached.
Someone had tried to board up the busted doorway, but the boards had been pried loose at the bottom and it was easy to swing them out of the way. Some of the window panes had been smashed or removed, too.
A chandelier had fallen in the vaulted hall. Asuka picked her way over the broken glass, past the carved Egyptian-style friezes, and down the rickety stairs. She called Fubuki's name. Her words were lost in the empty cavern.
She shouted again. "Fubuki!"
The building took her word, multiplied it a hundred times, sliced it and spread it around echoing walls and shaking timbers, and she feared the very roof might collapse – until it dissipated in shivering whispers and left her, cold but standing firm, and alone.
Hiking the volcano was a full day job, and Asuka had come prepared. She had swapped her uniform and boots for sensible, layered clothes and robust shoes. There was sunscreen on her skin and food and water in her bag. She'd even thought to bring a mask to cover her mouth and nose. She slipped it on as she neared the summit. It occurred to her that maybe she should have told someone where she was going today. It had seemed somehow contrary to the spirit of skipping class, although she suspected Cronos might not have minded.
She had decided to climb straight to the top via the easiest route, then wind her way down to cover the most ground. Loose scree slipped beneath her feet and she almost lost her footing more than once. Finally she stood on the lip of the crater, staring down into the brightly roiling mass. The heat threatened to singe her eyebrows, and tendrils of sulphuric smoke wound their way under her mask to choke her. She could not stay there long.
Asuka walked around the crater, carefully looking outside and in for any trace that the worst might have happened – a bag, a coat… There was nothing, but as the wind blew ash in her face and around her feet, it was clear that any evidence could have been long lost.
Unsure whether she should be relieved or disappointed, Asuka reluctantly gave up on the belligerent crater and started the long trek down. Back over the ridge conditions quickly improved, though she had to walk slowly and carefully to avoid tripping on the rough rock and slippery ash. The ground was bare. No trace of footprints even, other than her own. Foolish, perhaps, to come here; but she would cover all the ground that the teachers deemed unworthy, and more. She still had hope, even in the darkest recesses of her mind.
Asuka reached a plateau and paused for breath, coughing the last fumes from her lungs. The sun sparkled on the calm sea. She risked removing her mask to take a breath, and found the air almost immediately clearer.
Something seemed familiar about the contours of the slopes around her. She rolled it around her brain for a few moments. This was where she had met Fubuki, returned after his ordeal with the Seven Stars. Alive, breathing, but aching with a hurt that would take him months to recover. The moments she had caught him standing in the hallway, seemingly better, and then he would turn to look at her with that blank, unrecognising stare… She'd smiled, and talked softly, and led him back to his room. Asuka, don't you remember, I'm Asuka?
Fubuki…
Asuka sniffed and pulled her socks up. She had a lot of ground to cover, and the forest would be harder work than the rocky higher ground. She needed to get moving if she was to make it back before nightfall.
It was dark when Asuka returned down-hearted to her dorm. It seemed as if the island had been wiped clean of any trace of Fubuki. Her shoulders lacked a little of their usual firm set. Still, there were places she had not yet tried, people she had not yet interviewed, and she was sure to catch a break the next day. Bit by bit, she would chip away at the island's glamour and reveal its latest secret.
A soft knock came at Asuka's door. She opened it and was confronted by the concerned faces of her friends, Junko and Momoe.
"Asuka? Professor Cronos wants to see you," said Momoe.
Junko laid her hand on Asuka's arm. "I'm sure it's nothing bad," she said, almost succeeding in keeping the worry out of her face.
The two accompanied Asuka to the dorm's entrance hall. Asuka set a fierce pace but her friends were no less determined. She indicated for them to wait in the hall as Cronos opened the door to Ayukawa's office.
Asuka heard the rush of her own blood as Cronos stared at her tight-lipped.
"Signora Asuka," he said. "You were absent from my class today."
"I had to look for him," said Asuka. The words came out in a rush. "You know what Fubuki's been through, what could have happened to him. I had to try –"
"Signora Asuka," Cronos interrupted, louder and more stern than before. "It is essenziale that a girl of your abilities should attend. You cannot run around on the wild duck hunt, no ne?"
"But-"
"Signora Asuka," Cronos continued, slowly and deliberately. "You will attend your lessons. You will not become a dropout girl, capisci?"
Asuka lowered her head. "I understand, Professor Cronos."
"That is good." Cronos's voice softened a little. "I, too, have been hard at work, and I would not wish for you to miss out." He pressed something into Asuka's hand. On looking, it was a folded piece of paper. Duel Academy letterhead.
Asuka unfolded the paper. A trace of expensive scent revealed itself, and – an address.
Of course. It was so simple. No-one would ever have thought to look there.
She rushed forward and gave Cronos a sudden squeeze, prompting a good-humoured "Mamma mia!", and then charged off.
The door pushed open easily at Asuka's hesitant touch. There, draped in a louche fashion over the swivel chair and staring out of the large window of the Ra Yellow dorm room, was Asuka's errant brother. He heaved a sigh at her approach and sank further into his chair.
Asuka pursed her lips and set her hands firmly on her hips, where they wouldn't be tempted to lash out. "Have you been here this whole time? I thought you were dead. I should kill you myself!"
Fubuki couldn't even manage a nervous laugh. Asuka fumed.
"How long were you going to hide out here, huh? The whole school was looking for you!"
"Were they?"
It was a flat statement rather than a question. And when she focused on it, she found she couldn't argue the point. Those who had been in the other dimension had other things to think about, and those who had been left behind had thought him gone with them. Asuka's friends might have helped if she had asked, but she hadn't, and they hadn't. Fubuki was a conundrum to others – a celebrity in the limelight, and utterly forgotten once he had left the stage. She thought it must be exhausting to live one's life as a performance.
Asuka sat down on the edge of the bed. It was a bit hard compared to what she was used to in the Blue dorm, and creaked slightly.
"I was looking all over the island for you," she said in a huff. And then, more quietly, "I'm just glad you're ok."
Fubuki sighed. Asuka knew it was best to just let him go off when he was being overly dramatic, but she wasn't entirely sure what exactly he was being dramatic about this time.
"What's the matter, brother?"
Fubuki shrugged. "Nothing. I'm fine."
"Clearly." Asuka leaned forward to catch hold of his hand. "Clearly you're holed up in a dorm that's not yours, hiding from everyone, because you're fine."
"I couldn't do anything," Fubuki said quietly. "I couldn't protect you. I couldn't find you. I couldn't save you."
"I'm here," said Asuka, patting Fubuki's hand. "I made it back."
"With the help of everyone else," said Fubuki with a sniff.
"Well, yes," said Asuka.
"Everyone else but me."
"Oh," said Asuka. She was starting to understand.
"I've caused nothing but trouble for you since you came here, and I can't even pull you back from a different dimension." Fubuki laughed, but it was hoarse and hollow.
"Brother…" Asuka smiled and squeezed Fubuki's hand tightly. "What reason would I have to come back if I didn't know you were here? You're my hope. You're what pushes me on."
"A-Asuka…" Fubuki's eyes were welling up, and Asuka pulled him into a hug. The castors of the chair made a soft swooshing sound as they rolled over the carpet.
"You're an idiot sometimes, and you interfere too much, and I really wish you'd stop trying to find me a date, but I love you, dummy."
Fubuki made a choked half-laugh at Asuka's shoulder. "Swing of Memories," he said softly.
"Swing of memories?"
"It's always bittersweet."
"I don't understand," said Asuka, but she did, really.
As this is a giftfic, no criticism is requested at this time.