Despite having a gun pointed at him, Yuma did not miss the days where a good chunk of conflict is solved with dueling. Instead, he looked at his mugger straight in the eyes and pulled out a sword.

(Apparently he could do that now.)

Akari once said the first rule to a gunfight was to not enter a gunfight but seeing as that part was out the window, Yuma skipped to the third thing his sister said which was try not to get hit. Pretty easy.

The guy shot but normal guns in this dimension were slow so Yuma, even in his sleep deprived state, blocked it. A quick stab and said gun was rendered unusable. The mugger yelped, dropped his ruined gun and scrambled back.

Noting the ratty coat and the dirt on the man's face and his hollow cheeks, Yuma winced before holding out his grocery bag. Filled with packets of instant noodles and cartoon eggs.

The man flinched at his movement, making Yuma pause. Slowly he lowered the bag down to the ground. He wasn't even half way standing back up when a voice rang out from up above.

"Hey Yuma." The local hero of Fawcett, his new home (still getting used to that), greeted. He glanced at Yuma's sword, the ruined gun, the still frozen man and finally his groceries. "Noodles and eggs again?"

Yuma shrugged. "Keep forgetting to buy a knife and a few other utensils. You know how it is, Cap."

That and it was more convenient to buy food when he got off work at the pier.

Captain Marvel winced."You want a ride home?"

Yawning, Yuma nodded. He willed the sword away and climbed onto Captain Marvel's board shoulders.

"You forgot your bag." Captain Marvel pointed out.

"Nah, the guy can have it." Yuma waved off and gestured for the man to take flight.

[-.-]

Yuma didn't starve the next morning (nor did he drink a Monster for breakfast). Instead he woke up to the neighbor kid knocking on his door.

"Billy, why are you up so early?" He whined as he cracked his door open. "It's the summer, aren't you supposed to sleep in?"

"Yuma, it's eleven in the morning." Billy pointed out dryly. Before holding up a tub of leftover "Sides I got food."

What sleepiness left in his body was beat out by his growling stomach and Yuma stepped aside for Billy to come in. The kid was in Yuma's apartment enough time to know his way around so in a blink of an eye Billy already popped the food into his microwave.

"You really need to buy more stuff for your kitchen." Billy commented as Yuma moved to freshen up.

"I'm saving money to buy a rice cooker." Yuma told him, somehow speaking clearly even with a toothbrush in his mouth.

"At least get a knife. It's kinda sad that you're cutting scallions with scissors."

Yuma groaned, it sounded like a scolding. On one hand he should be embarrassed for being told off by a kid four years younger. But he grew up as the youngest siblings (with Akari, with Shark, Kaito, Astral, Kotori sometimes) so these kinds of things left him mildly annoyed.

"Yea, yeah, I'll put it on the shopping list." He won't, Yuma had already forgotten about the knife the moment he took a bite of that reheated lasagna.

" And maybe a few more spoons and forks and-"

"You know I've got some new card design down for your deck. Wanna see them?" Yuma asked. He shouldn't be resorting to introducing a game from another dimension to entertain Billy but when you spent your enter life (your dreams and hopes) revolved around Dueling. It was very hard to look for an idea that was not Duel Monster.

Maybe he should look into that crochet thing that Billy had been talking about.

Still he opened his D-pad to show what he had been working on to Billy.

Speaking of hobby, he picked up art to edit Astral into the Number Club's photos (Astral didn't smile when he saw the picture but he shined a bit brighter), he'd never thought he would be making Duel Monster cards with those skills. As draining as it was creating at least 40 unique drawings for the cards, between it and making up the card effect. Yuma thought that the art was less taxing.

Didn't help that Billy liked the Ritual mechanic and Yuma wasn't very familiar with that (Who was he? Kaito? Master Rokujuro? He wasn't old like them)

"Well? What do you think?" Yuma asked through a mouthful of food. He hoped the kid liked it because selfishly, he would really like someone to duel with again.

"They look so cool!" Billy gushed as he swiped between the different cards. Marveling over the Arcane Heroes named after demons. Weird flex but it makes Yuma's creative process easier.

"Good to know, now we just need to print them. It takes a while so you just have to keep using my spare deck."

The printing probably won't take long, making the printer on the other hand…yeah with the level of technology in this dimension Yuma had been running into roadblock after roadblock these past months.

He thought about manually creating them with Chaos but yeah, no, he still needs energy to work.

"Do you need any help with the printer?" Billy asked, turning to him with wide eyes and suddenly Yuma's spine felt like a chocolate eclair. God, was this what Kaito felt when he looked at Haruto?

Did he ever tell Billy that the cards need to be printed with a specialized printer? Yuma couldn't recall but sleep deprive!Yuma had hazy memories so he might. "Nah, I'll be g….."

Big blue eyes stared at him and Yuma caved.

"I mean sure."

[-.-]

Yuma Tsukumo came to Billy's life as a shooting star. Literally.

Captain Marvel caught him before the teen could Crashed into Fawcett. The boy was still on fire within Captain Marvel's arms and somehow not dead.

Solomon's wisdom whispered to him to be cautious, for the star he'd just caught brought nothing but Chaos ( there the deity hissed at the word like it was ashes in his mouth). Still Captain Marvel places the teenager down on some random rooftop and allows him to explain himself.

He wasn't rude (or Solomon who kept telling him that pop music rot the brain) after all.

"I'm Yuma Tsukumo." The teenager introduced, smiling bright even when his eyes drooped in exhaustion.

He asked about a place called Heartland city in Japan. There was no city called Heartland in existence.

Yuma's smile dropped and Billy could see the moment his heart broke.

Safe to say it was a long night for Yuma.

Looking at him now, fiddling with machine parts that Billy had helped him gather, Billy knew that night never really ended to Yuma.

Those red eyes flickered like dying stars. Not even Yuma's naturally spiky hair was willing to stay up when he was in these moods.

"Yumaaaa~" Billy yelled as he plopped onto his lap. He could hear the clangs of the screwdriver dropped down on the table. "Yuma, I'm bored~ Play with me~"

"Where - when- How did you get in here?" Yuma questioned, pulling down the protective google from his face.

"Your window." Billy nonchalantly replied.

"I locked my window." Yuma said slowly.

"And I picked it, it isn't hard." Billy shrugged, the hair pin tucked inside his sweater. "I'm still bored, entertain me Yuma."

Yuma resigned to his fate, putting away his current project and , much to Billy's surprise, suggested a game that was not Duel Monster.

"Ever played Senet?" Yuma presented him with a wooden board. It was divided into little squares, some had symbols painted within them while most were left blank. Billy recognized the game but couldn't recall the rules.

(He remembered the little girl he played it with though)

"It's been a while,"He admitted. "Can you explain the rule?"

Yuma placed the board down and pulled out the split twigs. "That's fine. It's been a while for me too. At least you can actually touch the pieces."

And there was that too.

Yuma made reference to his friends back home (in another dimension Billy theorized) sometimes. One of them, Astral, was a ghost? He wasn't actually sure. From what little he could gather, Astral was Yuma's best friend and the most precious thing in Yuma's world.

(Yuma's Duel Spirits - who lingered around Yuma on bad nights and whispered out to Billy - might know more but Billy didn't want to push)

Yuma's eyes were wet for a second before he wiped them and game night moved on as normal. They joked and laughed and held their breath when they each had one piece left each. Yuma's luck won out in the end when his twigs gave him a three, allowing his pieces to move off the board.

"Again! I was still getting used to the game, I'll win this time." Billy declared with a huff.

"We'll see." Yuma teased with a grin. "You want a snack?"

Yuma's definition of snack was a plate piled with some sort of food.

"It's uh…jelly do- no, rice ball." Yuma stumbled over the words with accented english. " Rice Ball sounds about right. It's tuna and mayo filling."

Billy watched Yuma take one of the rice balls with his hand, taking a bite of it first before copying the act. It was salty and mushy and he could feel the gentle warmth being put into the food. "You finally got the kitchen utensils."

"Yeah, not everything I need. Rice cookers are surprisingly expensive, so I have to make rice in a saucepan today." Yuma said, wincing like he had committed the gravest sin in the bible. "But I got plates now, and a lunch container and knives and chopsticks."

"Did you get spoons? Like non-plastic ones?"

Yuma paused. "I knew I was forgetting something."

[-.-]

There was some adjustment to be made when it came to his new home. Like publicly available technology being much less advance, and people don't usually have red eyes or magenta hair, or in this moment,

Being able to snap metal pipes off with a kick.

Not that Yuma cared to hold back. What kind of asshole tried to beat up a nine years old?

Ones that Yuma wouldn't mind getting physical with. The old teens stepped back when they saw what he just did. Good.

Billy was hiding behind, out of their reach with Utopic Future guarding him in spirit.

"I'll ask again, leave." Yuma gritted out.

"Fuck you." Their leader spitted and the rest of the gang rushed at Yuma.

A bat was in Yuma's hand before he knew it and the fight began.

Let it be said Yuma wasn't a fighter, he'd never been trained (unlike Kaito and Gauche and Nistro and Chris?). He was taught to hunt with a bow and sometimes play fight with antique weapons. That was it.

But he'd like to say he did pretty well. No one got past him, everyone who got close either received a bat swing into the flesh or a kick to their groin. Yuma's heart pumped the fastest it had ever been in months as his swing was met with a crack.

And when the last guy scrambled off, Yuma was made very aware of the knife embedded in his side. Pulling it out, Yuma let Chaos take care of the wound.

"You know you're not supposed to pull stuff out when you get stabbed, right?" Billy pointed out, his left eyes swelled.

"It's fine, see?" He gestured at the clear patch of skin before reaching for Billy's face." Here."

Billy flinched at his touch but melted into it when Chaos began to work its magic. His injury was gone in a few seconds.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" On one hand Yuma was still getting used to having healing powers but on the other hand healthcare is expensive in America.

Billy shook his head. "I'm fine now. The big guy did a really good job to protect me."

Wasn't expecting that Billy could see Duel Spirits but Billy had always been a bit weird in Yuma's opinion. Like Cathy.

The number scratched his head bashfully at the praise, letting out a happy little hum.

"His name is Future Number 0: Utopic Future."

" 'Future Number'." Billy repeated. "I don't remember seeing any archetype with that name."

"'Numbers are born from power so they're not publicly available." Yuma explained.

Billy paused and reached out the phantom body of the warrior. "You…..you made him?"

"What can I say, I'm a great duelist." Yuma bragged.

He let Utopic Future trail after Billy like a mother hen as they walked home.

[-.-]

Red meet blue and Billy was beginning to feel like a deer in headlights.

He was standing in Yuma's bedroom balcony, freshly untransformed and there Yuma was, gripping the blanket he'd lent Billy, staring right back at him with relief flooding his face.

"So… you're the big Cap, huh?" Yuma said with this sense of casualness that baffled Billy.

(The people of Fawcett were used to accepting anomalies but no one was this accepting.)

Yuma took in his wide eyes and continued. "It's okay, I won't tell anyone. I'd read enough comics to know secret identities are important and all that jazz."

"You're taking this very well."

Yuma shrugged. "Ehh, got caught up with a war between two alien worlds once so at this point this." He gestured at Billy and the scorch mark on his balcony. " Is kinda tame. At least you didn't blow a hole in my house."

Billy took a moment to process the words and wondered if he wanted to know the context for what just came out of Yuma's mouth.

He decided that context is for future Billy to handle.