A bunch of teenagers (two of which were glaring at each other) with swords were casually walking down the streets.

Yuuma did not stop to question why nobody bothered asking them how they got weapons.

He did take a moment to look at Vector's, Alit's and Mizael's swords though - apparently, they'd decided to take their real swords for whatever they were going to do at Kaito's place.

All of the hilts had color schemes that reminded Yuuma of their Barian forms, and he somewhat wondered what the blades would look like, as he hadn't seen the swords unsheathed yet.

Yuuma had asked them where they'd gotten those swords, and the response did not surprise him in the slightest: the Arclights were involved in it.

He wanted a sword, too. The enthusiasm that filled Yuuma was almost like the one he'd felt when he'd first started dueling, and he smiled at the thought.

When Yuuma entered the training room in Dr. Faker's facility, the first thing he saw was... something that heavily reminded him of that one time when he'd broken into Kaito's lab in order to retrieve the Emperor's Key.

It was Orbital 7, fighting against III. It didn't look very good for III, either - Orbital was in his fighting form and his drills were giving III a hard time. Not like a sword was enough to parry a drill's impact.

"What's going on?" Yuuma asked when he spotted Kaito who was watching the fight with a smirk.

It was V, standing next to Kaito, who answered. "They are dueling."

"That's one great duel!" Alit shouted - he was visibly excited, for this was the closest any activity could get to his fighting spirit.

Yuuma found the term "duel" odd in this situation, but he said nothing. After all, this was a substitute for actual dueling, and from the looks of it, it was actually working for III and the Barians.

"Orbital needs practice," Kaito provided the reason for them to duel.

Mizael nodded in an approving manner, meeting Kaito's gaze for a second.

Seeing III dodge Orbital's attacks by a mere hair's breadth, Yuuma doubted that Orbital really needed practice.

At least that's what he thought until III had his sword right under the metal plate under which Orbital's core was hidden.

Essentially, III could wound the robot mortally if he pushed the sword even one bit forward.

And then the boy smiled, removing his sword from the dangerous spot and bowing once. "That was a great fight, Orbital."

"You still need practice, Orbital" Kaito spoiled the praise, but his smile gave away that he approved of Orbital as well.

"K-Kaito-sama!" Orbital seemed in delight and Yuuma couldn't help but to chuckle a little.

"Yuuma," III said, now turning his attention toward him. Then his brows furrowed a little and he looked at his older brother. "Brother, are you sure this is-"

"Stop treating him like a baby, he can't sulk forever and we can't hide forever that we've started doing this," Vector interrupted III harshly. III glared at Vector, but the ginger-haired boy did not take that seriously at all, shrugging with a grin.

"Michael, I don't like saying it, but I agree with Vector," V now said, a sigh in his voice.

Yuuma looked from III to Vector, unable to hide the sadness in his eyes. "Why did you hide this from me? Isn't it just like dueling?"

"They didn't think you were ready to move on," Alit explained, obviously not agreeing with that opinion.

"Move on?" Yuuma did not understand, or perhaps he did not want to understand. So his gaze went to the Emperor's Key, and he understood. "Ah..."

He was a bad liar, after all.

"Exactly," Kaito said, not letting silence slip into the conversation. "So, will you take up this new challenge? Isn't that your 'Kattobingu'?"

Yuuma grinned, and he failed to notice that Vector's expression mirrored his own.

"That's what he had come here for to begin with," Vector revealed. "Jyan jyan!"

"Wait, how does Yuuma even know about this?" Yuuma turned around to see IV stand in the doorway.

"IV!" Yuuma shouted, happy to see the man.

"Me and Miza-chan..." Mizael glared at Vector. "...took the liberty to show Yuuma a little fight," Vector provided as an answer to IV's question.

"So you were ahead of us," V concluded, nodding more to himself than anything else. "We had originally planned to tell Yuuma about this today, but it seems that is not necessary."

IV was carrying his sword as well, and Yuuma's eagerness to try it as well was increasing at every minute.

"By the way," Kaito now said, looking at III and then at Yuuma. "Didn't you ask for III earlier?"

"Oh, yeah!" Yuuma smiled. "I wanted to ask him to teach me how to use a sword."

"It would be an honor." III returned the smile, having hoped to be allowed to do that.

"He doesn't need to practice dodging, by the way," Vector provided as an advice. "He's the one who managed to escape from the traps in my Numbers ruin, after all."

"Don't remind me of that," Yuuma said, a slight laugh in his voice. While he was able to make jokes about the time when Vector was still out to kill him, he didn't like being reminded of it too often.

"Well, we should get some training swords then," III said, apparently waiting for Orbital to get them.

"Why aren't you using your real sword, III?" Yuuma asked, looking at the sword that was hanging from the belt around III's waist.

"It's a bit dangerous to fight with these swords when you have no experience," Alit answered instead, grinning. "I actually used my real sword from the start."

"And you almost chopped your own hand off," Mizael harshly reminded him, but immediately regretted doing so.

"And you didn't, Miza-chan?" Vector asked, giggling when Mizael scowled at him.

"Let's just give him his real sword," Kaito said with a sigh. "Orbital."

"Understood!" And with that, Orbital rushed away.

"My real... sword?" Yuuma was confused.

"Did you think we were not prepared for this?" Vector didn't hide the fact that he was very satisfied with the situation.

"Hope," Yuuma breathed the word, rather than really saying it.

The sword's hilt was golden, reminiscent of Hope's sealed form, and it had a green gem in its center. The blade was white, and Yuuma saw that his name was engraved in it.

"Is this... really for me?" Yuuma stared at the sword, unable to believe that his friends had done that for him. He didn't notice the small tears of happiness that made their way to his eyes.

"Yeah," Kaito said with a nod, watching Yuuma struggle under the swords weight. He then looked at Mizael. "You were right about this after all, Mizael. If we had made him a heavier sword, he wouldn't have been able to use it."

"Mizael helped?" Yuuma asked, surprised about that. He wasn't on bad terms with Mizael, but he definitely had not expected Mizael to help with that.

"Actually, everyone helped for this one," Mizael said in response.

Yuuma turned to looked at Vector, who suddenly felt the urge to avoid his gaze.

"Even you, too, Vector?" Yuuma asked.

"The design was my idea," Vector replied - a bit too fast because Alit laughed at him.

"But you ended up leaving the details to Nasch and Merag." Alit grinned.

"Hey, you didn't even do anything!" Vector scowled.

"It was my idea to make him a sword before telling him about this," Alit protested, and he kept bickering with Vector...

...until Yuuma laughed.

"You guys are great," Yuuma said, an honest smile on his face. "Thank you so much."

Fighting was hard.

Yuuma had - just as Vector had suspected - no problems dodging III's attacks (although III didn't try that hard, either), but he did have problems getting used to the sword's weight.

Unfortunately, none of his two training partners - Vector and III, the others had gone to another room in order to not disturb them - actually had an idea how to teach him about handling the sword correctly.

III could tell Yuuma all he wanted about technique, but Yuuma wasn't one for tactics (he couldn't even pronounce it), so that didn't work. And Vector was too busy enjoying the show.

But within wielding a sword, Yuuma found meaning.

It was that passion he'd always felt while dueling, the connection to his opponent, the desire to move forward and do his best.

Kattobingu.

Yuuma knew he'd have to start from the bottom at this, but he was ready to take the challenge and do his best.

"Just hold it like this."

He was confused when he felt Vector's hand around his, changing the position of his fingers around the hilt of his sword.

"I thought III said I'm not supposed to hold it like that?" Yuuma was confused, looking at Vector who had an annoyed expression.

"It's because the Arclights fight traditionally," Vector simply explained - he proved to have more actual knowledge than he had initially seemed to have.

III just nodded. "But this is Yuuma, so maybe your methods work better, Vector."

But Yuuma had just gotten reminded of something that otherwise would've made him sad, but right now it was making him the happy. "I'm holding the sword just like Hope would!"

He was swinging his sword around a little, happy to have finally found a way.

It was still heavy, but not 'impossible to use properly'-heavy.

"With this way of gripping it, you will not be able to attack fast, though," III explained, but Yuuma was far from listening.

"Alright, I wanna fight again!" Yuuma said, motivation visible in his eyes.

"I'll be your opponent," Vector declared, for the first time actually fighting against Yuuma. He had left it to III before, but things had gotten a lot more interesting now.

He unsheathed his sword, taking a taunting pose. "Duel."

One thing was not different at all when it came to sword duels and card duels: The terms they used.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Yuuma was aware that this probably was only the case because his friends were all duelists, but it didn't stop him from liking it.

He mentally made a note to visit Rokujuurou and Yamikawa, as he knew that Yamikawa could wield a sword as well.

...And Yuuma almost would've gotten hit by Vector's sword if it hadn't been for rapidly pulling up his sword in defense.

"Don't space out," Vector warned as he went for another attack. His way of fighting amazed Yuuma. It looked like years of experience, and Yuuma faintly recalled that that was actually the case.

"I need a duel rice ball now!" Yuuma announced, lying on the floor next to Vector. "You're really good at this, Vector!"

"It would've been for the worst if I wasn't," Vector truthfully replied. He'd have died long ago if he wasn't. And while he technically had died twice already, he probably would've died permanently if it hadn't been for his swordsmanship.

III had left for a bit, apparently having to talk to his brothers.

Yuuma fell silent and he closed his eyes.

His situation had not actually changed.

Astral was still not around. Yuuma still could not go the Astral World whenever he wanted.

But the thing that had to change wasn't his situation.

It was him.

Over the course of the last hours of fighting, the realization had slowly crept into his heart.

He hadn't been himself, anymore.

He hadn't taken any challenges, had ran away from inevitable truths.

And that was why, Yuuma knew he'd make a choice this evening.

"You know," Vector suddenly said, ripping Yuuma out of his thoughts. "I think it's for the best if you just tell Astral how you feel about this."

"Wait, how...?" Yuuma asked, confused about Vector's capability of practically reading his thoughts.

"You haven't told him yet, it's obvious from the way you behave. You were overthinking this, but you know," Vector paused to laugh before continuing. "You're ridiculously simple. So better do things your way, thinking doesn't suit you."

Yuuma did not catch the indirect insult.

He did catch the advice though.

"You mean it's better to just Kattobingu?" Yuuma was not not sure whether he really understood that right.

Vector nodded but realized that Yuuma had his eyes closed. "Yeah."

"Hey, Vector," Yuuma said after some seconds of silence, now opening his eyes to look at Vector. "Do you think it's right to use the Key for this?"

"So you knew after all," Vector answered, more to himself than to Yuuma.

The Emperor's Key was made out of highly concentrated astrite. There was an entire pocket dimension inside that thing, after all.

Of course its interior could be used for interdimensional transports.

But Yuuma had been scared.

Months ago, when V had asked him whether they could use the Emperor's Key's power as fuel for their dimensional transports, Yuuma had refused.

He'd said that it was the last thing he had left of Astral.

That unless V was sure nothing would would happen to it, he wouldn't give the Key away.

That V and Kaito should look for other astrite sources.

But of course those sources were close to non-existent.

Yuuma knew he should have nothing to fear, but at the same time the thought of something happening to the Key - the dimensional transporter exploding, for instance - and having nothing left of Astral was too agonizing to deal with.

But this was not him.

He knew. Vector knew. Everyone knew it.

Tsukumo Yuuma was one to recklessly rush in, to take risks.

But that very Tsukumo Yuuma found himself betraying that part of himself very often when it came to Astral-related matters.

"You should," Vector answered properly after a moment of thinking.

Yuuma sighed, then breathed in deeply and jumped to his feet. "Kattobingu da, ore!"

"By the way," Vector got up as well. "Has it ever occurred to you that Astral might supply you with astrite if you just ask?"

And at that, Yuuma's face reddened. He hadn't thought of it before.

But before he could reply, Kaito entered the room, making a satisfied face. "Let me remind you: The chance of the Emperor's Key being damaged in the process of using it for a dimensional transport is very slim anyway."

"Kaito?!" Yuuma almost fell over. "You were listening?"

At that moment, III stepped back into the room, obviously looking like he was feeling embarrassed about something.

Yuuma rolled his eyes a little. "Even you, III?"

When the room started to fill up with the other Barians and Arclights, Yuuma understood. Everyone had listened.

They'd all waited for this.

"...You guys planned this, right?"

"I thought it's for the best." It was Vector who replied, a wide grin on his face.

"Let's get to work then," V said, smiling.

In fact, everyone smiled.

And Yuuma realized that they hadn't in quite a while.

"Everyone..." Yuuma murmured, not sure whether he should apologize or not, but he decided to go for it anyway. "I'm sorry for having taken so long."

"It's not like we aren't used to it," IV simply replied with a shrug, remembering the time when Astral was thought to be dead all too well.

"I hope you don't mind us joining to visit Astral, though," Kaito added, a smirk on his face.

Yuuma finally stopped hesitating. "Of course not! But... can we make Astral a sword before we go there?"

"You want him to start learning how to wield a sword, too?" Alit was curious about that. In fact, Alit was eager to fight Yuuma and Astral again, even if without cards.

"Isn't that obvious?" Yuuma pouted a little. "If I have too much experience before he does, it's not fair! I want to fight him for fun, after all!"

"Now we have to spend endless weekends arguing over the design again," Mizael complained, scowling.

"It won't be that hard this time." Yuuma grinned. "We should just take Hope Ray's design as a reference."

Nobody had expected Yuuma to actually have a useful idea.

"We will have to call the other Barians though," Mizael realized. "Durbe is better than us at creating a good balance for the swords."

"Let's call them then!" Yuuma exclaimed and jumped.

"Kattobingu da, ore!"