Things were easier to do with the help of friends.

Of course, Yuuma had known that, but it was more apparent now that he watched Shark and Rio lean over a piece of paper, discussing the details for the design of Astral's sword.

He and Vector were seated in the back of the room - the Kamishiro twins had pretty much told them to get lost, actually, but Vector ("So I can piss off Nasch.") and Yuuma ("It's interesting!") had insisted they wanted to watch.

And that's why here they were, in the Arclights' mansion, working on different parts of the sword for Astral. In fact, he and Vector were not really being useful at all, but that was no surprise given that Yuuma had come up with the basic design idea and Vector was usually at Kaito's lab for reasons that no one spoke or even knew about. They didn't have much of a job beyond that, so all they did was watching the others and improving Yuuma's swordsmanship. But today was different, because Ryouga and Rio aimed to finalize the design for Astral's sword today.

Yuuma's anticipation was visible, because they had worked the whole week for the details.

"Oy, Merag-chan, Nasch, are you done already?" Vector asked, the tone of his voice giving away that he was mocking them. He had done that for the last few hours, and the reactions were always the same.

"Shut up, Vector, you haven't done anything useful," Ryouga hissed and he threw a pen in Vector's direction. However, it failed to hit its target due to said target's fast ducking - the pen hit Yuuma instead.

Yuuma grimaced. "Stop that, Shark. You, too, Vector."

"Oh, let them be, it's funny anyway," Rio commented with a smile, and once again Yuuma wondered how it was possible that she was getting along with Vector.

Yuuma had made Vector confess all his sins back then, right after he'd been revived. Vector had laughed about most if not all of them, and Yuuma understood, on a strange level.

He vaguely wondered if he would've done the same as Vector if he had gotten manipulated by Don Thousand, but he'd never know.

So with the knowledge that Vector had literally killed Durbe and Rio, it seemed strange to Yuuma that, out of all people, Rio had forgiven him. They had both never talked about the details to anyone. Even Shark seemed to know nothing, and Yuuma had simply decided that it was better if he did not insist.

"Shouldn't you be defending me?" Shark now asked, and Rio proceeded to just point out a flaw in the design they had overlooked.

"The blade is not slim enough, Astral would never fight with something that heavy," Rio suggested and made the changes she deemed necessary.

Silence fell back to the room, but not for long because they heard footsteps.

"Shark, Rio," III entered the room with a tray and proceeded to hand cups of tea to everyone. "You shouldn't overwork yourselves, it's night already."

Ryouga paid no attention to the tea and Rio took a sip before continuing her work.

"Thank you, III," Yuuma said, grateful for the tea because it was cold at night, even inside.

Then III turned around to look at Vector. "Kaito wants you to come to the lab."

"And I thought he was done," Vector complained, stretching himself as he stood up. "Well, Yuuma-kun, I'll be gone for a while."

"Can I come along?" Yuuma asked as he stood up as well, not waiting for an answer.

Vector bit his lip and looked at III instead, who in turn smiled.

"Whatever you, V-nii-sama and Kaito have been doing this whole time, you should show Yuuma at least," III decided, not helping Vector out in that matter.

Before Vector could voice any protest, they heard a relieved sigh from Rio.

"Finally, we're done!"

"What?"

"Really?!"

Yuuma and III simultaneously rushed to look at the design.

"This looks like something Astral would use," III said, although it was obvious even without his words.

Vector now looked at it as well and he smirked. "Not bad. Can IV even pull that off with his forging skills?"

"He should be able to if Durbe and Alit help out." III replied with a shrug. "Now back to what we were talking about. Yuuma, you're going with Vector. Ryouga, Rio and I will take care of the rest here."

"Why is Yuuma here?" Kaito eyed Vector coldly. They weren't on bad terms, but they weren't on good terms, either. After all, Vector was responsible for a lot of the suffering Haruto and Kaito had endured.

"Would you believe me if I told you III insisted?" Vector replied, sighing as he eyed the monitors that displayed a lot of data.

Yuuma's eyes widened when he looked to the right. "Is that... a dimensional transporter?"

Kaito nodded, arms crossed. "Yeah. We just finished testing it."

"I thought Vector has no idea of science?" Yuuma asked, confused about Vector's role in this.

Vector chuckled. "You're not wrong about that, unless 'hitting vital organs with swords' counts as having an idea of science anyway."

Yuuma looked like he'd eaten something bad for a second, but then he regained control of his facial expression. "So, why were you still keeping secrets?"

He was sick of secrets, even when they were for his sake.

"You wouldn't have approved of me being Kaito's guinea pig, would you?" Vector asked, and it was a rhetorical question, because of course the answer was 'no'.

Yuuma opened his mouth to ask what Vector meant, but Kaito provided the explanation right away.

"He might be human now, but somehow his blood still contains traces of Bariarite."

"Bariawhat?" Yuuma asked, scratching his head.

Vector sighed, obviously in disbelief of how little Yuuma knew. "The crystal that the Barian World was made of."

"Then..." Yuuma looked from Kaito to Vector. "What have you been doing?"

At that moment, V stepped into the room, carrying some documents. "The Bariarite has the same structure as Astrite, except it's infused with chaos. We tried to increase the success rate of the transporter by simulating it on a much smaller scale, using Vector's blood." He was even less friendly with Vector than Kaito was.

Yuuma understood why though, Tron's state - Tron's state that even the Numeron Code could not help with - was something V could never forget, and the Barians were responsible for it, after all. Especially Vector, who showed no remorse at all.

"Don't you have other sources of that Bariasomething?" Yuuma asked, not happy about Vector doing this at all.

"I don't wanna use Orbital for this, and human blood recovers on its own," Kaito didn't bother expressing it nicely, he was honest about it.

Yuuma nodded, and then he slowly turned to Vector. "Vector... you're doing all of this for me?"

Vector stepped aside to avoid getting hugged by Yuuma, and he rolled his eyes. "Hell, no. I told you, I can't stand the way you've been behaving. Even your dueling has become horrible. You were even summoning monsters with zero attack in attack mode. I'm glad you took up sword dueling, it's better for everyone who's involved with you."

All he got in return was Yuuma's grateful smile, and Vector found it irritating.

"Weren't you summoning monsters with zero attack in attack mode as well?" Kaito asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My monsters were based on that stuff," Vector said with a shrug. "So, what's the situation? You said you've finished it?"

V handed him the documents that he'd been carrying.

"Success rate 99,97%? My blood must be pretty high-class," Vector said with a chuckle.

"How are the others doing?" V asked as he took the documents away again.

"They finished the design an hour ago," Vector reported. "So we should be ready to go in two days if Durbe and the others work properly."

"And you should actually go home for once, Yuuma," V added, looking a bit concerned. "You've slept at the Barians' mansion for the whole week, haven't you?"

That was very obvious because of the clothes Yuuma was wearing. Everything was black, sometimes with small pink accents. Vector's wardrobe. It oddly fitted Yuuma because it mirrored the color of his hair, but the idea of Yuuma only wearing black was still strange to everyone, which is why he usually wore Vector's or his own uniform when it wasn't in the laundry... which it currently was.

"Almost the whole week," Yuuma muttered quietly. He knew Akari didn't like this, but he was calling her every day and telling her he was okay. Which he was. He was 14 by now, he said, he can take care of himself. He hadn't even skipped school, and he'd explained the situation to the Numbers Club ("I'm sleeping over at the Barians'!"), so everything was okay, right?

"Go home," Kaito now insisted as well, "We can handle the rest and we will call you when the sword is done."

Yuuma smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Kaito, V!"

"Alright, see you in two days," Vector said, waving goodbye as he turned to walk again.

"Won't you sleep over here?" Yuuma asked, and Vector sighed exaggeratedly.

"I might as well sleep over, then I don't need to hear Nasch's boasting about how good he is at designing swords."

And Yuuma smiled.

"Yuuma, is that a sword you're carrying?!" Akari looked out of the window, a frown on her face.

"Uhm..." Yuuma scratched his head, looking for an excuse.

Vector put a smile on. "It's for the best if I explain that, Akari-san."

It didn't take him long to make Akari realize that it can't be more life-threatening than dueling anyway.

It didn't take Haru long to realize that Vector wasn't who he pretended to be, either.

"So you're one of Yuuma's enemies from another world who is now his friend and from this world?" Akari had the urge to get violent, but both Haru and Yuuma were holding her back.

"Pretty much," Vector said, smirking. "I didn't plan on telling you."

Yuuma had barely managed to make Vector stop talking before he could mention all the people he killed.

Haru just smiled. "And now go to bed, it's 2 AM already."

[Kotori?]

[It's 3 AM, why do you text me at this time?]

[Did I wake you?]

[No, I am just... busy.]

[Oh, sorry.]

[What have you been up to lately?]

[We will go to Astral World in around two days! Wanna come along?]

[You've found a way?! I'm happy for you, Yuuma! I'd love to come along.]

[Yeah, everyone helped.]

[Why didn't you tell us?]

[I wasn't sure if it would work.

Sorry.]

[It's okay. I'm telling the others then!]

[Are they even awake?]

[Didn't I tell you I was busy? We are currently holding a Numbers Club emergency meeting, but the reason for it is gone now.]

[Emergency meeting? For what?]

[Because you were behaving strangely.]

[Oh.]

[You really are an idiot, haha. The others want to come along, too, by the way.]

[That's great! I'll tell Kaito then! Good night.]

[Good night, Yuuma.]

"Should you really be texting right now?" Vector asked, yawning. They were both sleeping in Yuuma's bedroom tonight, but it wasn't because of the memories connected to the attic. It was because Yuuma had wanted to.

Vector welcomed the change. And so he was sitting on his pile of covers, sneaking side-glances at Yuuma's D-Gazer to see what the texts had been about.

"Vector, you're awake?" Yuuma chose to ask a question instead of answering.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Vector stretched. "So, does that mean the others are coming along?" His annoyed expression made it obvious that he wasn't happy about that - for him, Yuuma alone was annoying enough already, he didn't want to have to endure Yuuma's fan club as well.

"Yeah." Yuuma took a moment before he continued."Can I take them to your next concert?"

"You will do it even if I decline, so why do you even bother asking in the first place?" Vector replied, yawning once more.

Immediately, Yuuma pouted and sat down in front of Vector. "Isn't that obvious? You're my friend, Vector!"

Vector was torn between rolling his eyes, denying it or just looking away. His body made the choice for him and he looked away.

"Go sleep," he demanded, letting himself fall backwards so he'd be able to sleep as well.

Of course, Yuuma kept pouting, but he obeyed. He was used to some of his friends being that way.

"You're really like Shark when it comes to friendship," Yuuma said as he stared at the ceiling.

"Do you want to die?" Vector hissed, too tired to get more worked up than that.

"It's nothing bad," Yuuma explained with a smile that Vector could not see, but definitely could hear from Yuuma's tone. "I just feel like you two would be better off if you could trust others."

"Trust others, huh?" Vector sighed as he pulled the blanket closer. "Have I ever told you that you are a ridiculously simple soul?"

Two days later, Yuuma's D-Gazer buzzed, but he ignored it in favor of parrying Vector's strike.

"You're starting to get more serious, aren't you?" A grin made its way to Yuuma's lips - he tried very hard to make Vector stop going easy on him, and he felt like he'd just made progress. He didn't get a reply though.

On Yuuma's next strike, Vector ducked and flipped him over. "You still have bad footwork. Now look who's calling you, it might be Kaito."

Yuuma performed a few backflips in order to get up, then he looked at Vector with genuinely impressed eyes. "Vector, you still have to tell me how you always manage to do this!"

Vector grinned, as if he had remembered something. "I'll teach you after we return from Astral World. And once you know how to do it, try it in a fight against Mizael."

"Alright!" Yuuma jumped in enthusiasm (and failed to notice Vector's attempts to suppress a chuckle) and then took out his D-Gazer. "It's from Kaito!"

"So what did he say?"

"The sword is done and we are supposed to get ready to travel to Astral World."

"Let's take a shortcut then!"

Vector's shortcut turned out to be the way through the sewers.

Vector was not surprised in the slightest when the Numbers Club stood ready in front of Kaito's lab.

He wasn't surprised that Kotori had brought food for Yuuma, either.

"Can I see the sword?" Yuuma asked, unable to hide his genuine curiosity.

Right then, Alit approached him, handing him the sword that was soon to be Astral's. "A bit too light for my taste, but probably just right for Astral."

Yuuma unsheathed it and made a sound of surprise. "Whoa! That sword is awesome!"

"It's probably our greatest work yet." Durbe commented, satisfied with the result.

Meanwhile, Ryouga tried to hide the bags under his eyes by looking at the ground, but he failed because Vector pointed it out immediately.

"Nasch looks like he's been in my Numbers Ruin for three days in a row or something."

"Shut up."

Yuuma looked at Ryouga in a concerned manner, "Is everything alright, Shark?"

"He decided to ditch sleep last night in favour of watching the others so he could make sure the sword is perfect," Rio explained with a smirk that earned her a glare from her brother.

"Didn't he do that when we made Yuuma's sword as well?" Gilag commented, and Ryouga looked like he had all intentions to use his own sword to silence everyone.

Vector laughed lightly because he still loved pissing Ryouga off. "He didn't sleep for three days in a row there, that was worse."

"And you did? You were texting me to ask for the progress, and we both know you hate my guts." Ryouga smirked as soon as he saw Vector's attempts to ignore what he just said.

"Was that why you asked for Shark's phone number that time?" Yuuma looked at Vector.

"You've sunken quite low, haven't you, Vector?" Mizael took the opportunity to mock Vector as well.

Vector scowled. "Remind me of who lost our last duel, Miza-chan?"

"So, are we going?" It was Tokunosuke who asked and that stopped the bickering.

The Numbers Club still felt uncomfortable about the former Barians, so they barely ever interacted with them if they didn't have to. Kotori sometimes did, but it was because she had seen some of their memories. She knew the best that they weren't at fault for their actions. At least not entirely.

"Yeah, we can go now." Kaito nodded.

"The Key, Yuuma." V said, pointing at the Emperor's Key as it was meant to be the power source for the transporter.

Yuuma gulped and slowly pulled the key off.

"Don't worry, Yuuma, it'll be okay," III assured him and smiled.

Before handing the Key over to V, Yuuma looked at Vector once, who gave him something he interpreted as an encouraging nod.

"Alright." Yuuma dropped the Key in V's hands and watched as he used it to get the transporter working.

"The energy for the transporter is drained from the inside of the Key," IV commented as he positioned himself on the platform in front of the transporter's control panel.

"To summarize, we're ready to go!" Takashi exclaimed as he and the rest of the Numbers Club joined IV on the platform.

Soon everyone was ready and Kaito used the remote to start the transporter.

"Transporting in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... go!" Orbital counted down, and within a flash of light they were all gone.

"We're here to see Astral," Yuuma smiled at Ena. She had welcomed them at the entrance and Yuuma had been glad to see her again.

Of course, the former Barian Emperors did not know what to make out of being in Astral World, especially since Vector and Nasch were both still capable of using some of their powers.

That had not been a surprise to anyone though, because the last time they'd saved Astral World, they had already discovered that.

Being here for enjoyment was just so different. However, they tried their best to welcome the change.

"Yuuma. It's nice to see you again." Astral smiled, the happiness in that smile was undeniable, although a trace of worry was visible in his eyes. "What are you doing in Astral World?"

Yuuma gulped but convinced himself to speak. "I... missed you."

A year ago, when Astral and Yuuma had first met, Astral wouldn't have expected Yuuma to ever say this, and would definitely not have expected himself to share that feeling.

But now was not a year ago.

"I missed you, too." Astral's gaze fell to Yuuma's chest, and he frowned.

Yuuma looked away, looked behind himself, but there was no one - the Numbers Club, the Arclights and the Barians had decided to give him time with Astral alone earlier, but now it was so difficult to stand here alone.

"Where is the Emperor's Key?" Astral now asked.

Yuuma's lip quivered, and he muttered: "We needed a power source." A beat. "But the Key is unharmed!"

"I see." Astral smiled again.

Silence made its way into their conversation, but Yuuma tried to prevent it. He had too much to say, but no words for it.

"How have the last two months been for you?" He asked, unable to look Astral in the eye.

Finding resolve had been hard, but actually going through with this was harder.

"They were fine. Aside from what I mentioned earlier." This time, Astral's gaze went to Yuuma's belt, and Yuuma was well aware of the reason for that. He was carrying two swords, after all.

Yuuma grinned sheepishly, looking for words. "You see... We... I..."

"I can't possibly stand watching this. Nasch, come here, even a blind person would know you're watching." Vector was approaching them.

From behind a pillar, Ryouga now walked towards Astral, Yuuma and Vector as well. "Hmph."

"I had wondered what you two were doing there already," Astral commented.

Yuuma gasped. "You knew? I totally didn't see them!"

"That's because you're an idiot." Vector sighed and looked from Yuuma to Astral. "Look, Astral, the thing is that Yuuma wants to be able to meet you regularly."

"Is that true, Yuuma?" Astral asked, looking at Yuuma without understanding. When Yuuma nodded, he continued: "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because he's an idiot." This time, it was Ryouga who said that, and Yuuma still didn't bother taking it as an insult because it wasn't one.

"I... didn't think you'd be able to do something about that," Yuuma looked to the ground as he spoke. "But then, Vector told me we could just ask you for Astrite to fuel our dimensional transporters!"

"I see. And you didn't want to use the Emperor's Key, I assume." Astral knew that much - the memories of the times where Yuuma had given the Key to Kotori for safekeeping were present as always.

Yuuma bit his lip and nodded. "But we had to, to get here."

"I can give you as much Astrite as you require, this world is made of it after all." Astral smiled warmly.

"Really?!" Yuuma took the opportunity to jump and hug Astral, not caring about Vector's and Ryouga's reactions. "Thank you so much!"

"Yuuma..." Astral returned the hug and waited until Yuuma stopped. Then. "But what are those... swords for?"

"About that..." Yuuma grinned. "I found a thing we can do that isn't dueling!"

"You mean, we found a thing." Ryouga crossed his arms, but he didn't bother hiding his smile.

"And that is... fighting with swords?" Astral asked, genuine interest sparkling in his eyes. A new challenge.

Yuuma nodded and handed Astral the sword. "Everyone worked hard to make you a sword. The Barians, the Arclights, and me!" He grinned.

Astral unsheathed the sword and looked at it. "Hope Ray?" His smile grew.

"Hey, you didn't do as horrible as I thought with the design, Nasch. Astral actually recognized it," Vector joked, earning him a glare from Ryouga.

Yuuma smiled as he asked, "And? Do you like it?"

"Yes, I like it a lot," Astral said, and as he continued to smile, he added: "Is there a tactic to the art of sword fighting?"

"Ehehe..." Yuuma pointed at Vector. "He's still teaching me."

Astral looked at Vector who just shrugged before saying, "If I was you, I'd learn from III instead. While he fails to teach Yuuma, he might be able to teach you. He likes rules and traditional fighting and all."

"I'll come back to that offer." Astral floated in the direction of the stairs. "But for now... Let's go meet the others, I need to thank them as well."

It was midnight when everyone was tired enough to sleep. Astral had offered them to sleep over, and no one had objected.

Especially not Yuuma who was used to sleepovers by now. Yuuma who, for the first time in the last two months, was genuinely happy.

Astral had gone away for a moment to inform Eliphas of the fact that his human friends would stay over night, and so Vector and Yuuma were alone as they lay down and looked at the stars.

"Vector?" Yuuma rolled over so he could look at him.

"Mhm?" Vector mirrored Yuuma's position.

"Why did you... start this? I mean, you were responsible for all of this, from the swords to Astral World... And, I'm really, really thankful for that, but..." Yuuma didn't know how to word it, because saying it was not something Vector would do would sound like an insult. And that wasn't not what it was.

Because we're friends, dumbass. Vector could've said that. It would've been true, but he definitely didn't want Yuuma to go and hug him. "Isn't that obvious?"

Yuuma tilted his head. "Huh? No."

"Because I thought it's for the best."

"That's not an answer!"

"Too bad."

The End

Whoa, this was a long ride. And I finally finished a chaptered fic. I hope you enjoyed it~