Series: Deadly Daughter||Title: Cast a Reflection
Characters: Asuka, Selena, Ruri||Ship: Asuka x Selena/Selena x Asuka
Chapters: 2-10||Words: 500||Total: 1,000
Genre: Angst, Friendship||Rated: PG
Prompt: Arc-V Angst Week Day #4, Separation
Notes: This takes place in the same universe as my earlier fic Good-bye. For those who haven't read that, then the Professor chose to use Selena to find the other bracelet girls, and Asuka is her partner/girlfriend (much as Yuuri and Dennis work together in canon, only deeper).
Summary: To find one's target means going deep undeercover, concealing one's allegiance, and witnessing horrors undreamed of first hand. Asuka never suspected to find a friend with the face of her beloved, let alone have to choose between the truth of her life and truths she's just begun to learn.
Before Asuka got started on her new mission, she worked on changing her look. Instead of the telltale Academia uniform or the generic outfit she'd worn when searching for the XYZ counterpart to Selena, now she had worn jeans, a sweater with a hole in the upper left shoulder, and battered shoes that gave off an air of having carried her through all manner of combat situations. To finish it off, she tied back her hair and made sure to pass through enough of the wreckage of Heartland to pick up soot and dirt. She hadn't worn anything similar to this since joining Academia.
She didn't know where the Academia forces would be as she wandered in search of survivor pockets. Eventually she stumbled across a detachment of Academia soldiers, who turned towards her, duel disks raised and ready for combat. Her hands dropped at once by habit, searching for the deck and duel disk she didn't have now, and one of the soldiers laughed.
"Looks like this one can't fight back!" He took a step closer to her and Asuka stood her ground. She had nothing here to mark where she came from and she couldn't let herself be carded. Her instincts sparked to defeat them, without a deck and when it would be wiser to flee.
"She might not be able to, but I can!" An unknown voice declared. The soldiers and Asuka turned at that, to see a young woman, roughly about Asuka's age, striding towards them from the wreckage. "Is that what you want?"
Asuka could only stare in surprise as the newcomer took on the trio of soldiers. She'd only seen XYZ summoning up close during her initial infiltration and that had been a very warm, caring sort of experience, bringing joy to others. It wasn't something she'd seen before and it intrigued her more than she dared to let on.
But what she saw now was something else altogether. This warrior sliced through her opponents with ease, her tactics overwhelming theirs, long icy claws of her monsters tearing into them, and the expression on her face never changing, haughty contempt mixed with flames of outrage. She wasn't an entertainer. She brought devastation in her wake.
She wasn't the girl that Asuka came to find but she was a magnificent warrior. Where in the world had the resistance dug her up?
As her ace monster struck down the last of the Academia soldiers, the stranger strode towards them. "Now, get out of here before I get really angry!"
Asuka hadn't ever seen someone run so fast. She thought briefly about doing the same thing as the woman turned towards her.
"Who are you? And what are you doing out here?" She hadn't closed her duel disk. Her attention remained riveted on Asuka. Asuka stood straighter. This was it.
"Tenjoin Asuka. Thank you for your help… but who are you?"
The stranger stared at her, as if reading into her soul, before she answered. "Kamishiro Rio."
To Be Continued
Notes: Oops, did I forget to mention that in my Arc-V!Heartland, there are many Zexal cameos, not just Kaito? Bad me!