Last Duel of No Regrets
Chapter 3

Five years ago, he'd called Yuki Judai the one to transcend perfection – and he'd done that. Slipping back. Clawing forward. Slipping back again. Much like he himself had. And yet he'd lacked something. He hadn't taken that something away from Duel Academia until after he'd returned. He'd been unfortunate, blind…or a fool.

But he had it now. And that desire to duel still stirred in his soul. So long as Judai heard the plea, wherever he was. So long as he came.

Ryou did not think "before it was too late". That was the voice of regret, and he didn't want regret.

Missing the tail-end of Edo's duel because his thoughts had drifted far off track…that, he didn't mind. Edo would update him anyway, and listening to recounts of duels was a relatively good way to pass the time at the hospital. And the doctors couldn't complain. It was hardly strenuous.

And, sure enough, Edo called him a few days later, conveniently when Shou had gone with Fubuki to see Asuka off. Or maybe on purpose. Edo had an uncanny ability of knowing things. Part of that had to do with his working relationship with Manjyoume and his access, therefore, to the Manjyoume Group. Some of it was just plain Edo – the bit of him that had managed to get under his skin initially but that had, also, paved the way for a friendship.

'What's up?' he asked, sounding like he always did. Not particularly excited, not particularly tired – almost the same tone he would address anyone that wasn't a child or his worst enemy in, but Ryou was the same so he knew where to look for the differences.

'A ceiling,' Ryou responded dryly. 'The same one I've been staring at for weeks now.'

'The ceiling.' There was fake surprise in the tone. 'Not your cards plastered to them?'

'Afraid not.' The cards were in the drawer. Staring at them wasn't going to give him an opponent. Especially when his room was empty save for him. 'I can only look at them for so long without an opponent.'

'Shame.' And Edo hummed. 'You can grab the next poor nurse that wanders past.'

If Ryou had not been Ryou, he would have snorted in amusement then. 'That poor nurse is probably not going to know which end of the card is up,' he replied. 'That won't be much fun – and you know full well I don't have the patience to teach anyone.'

'Your little brother is enough testament of that,' Edo agreed, 'though in that case, your inability might be a good thing.'

'That would be Juudai's doing,' Ryou shrugged. And it was. He doubted Shou would have come that far if he hadn't the fortune of meeting Yuki Juudai. And if none of those things had happened: the Stars, the Light of Ruin, the sandy three-sunned world, the Dark World… Even the battle against Darkness.

'A lot of things are Juudai's doing,' Edo agreed. 'But the world goes on.'

That was his way of saying they were in a much larger world than school now. And they were doing their own things.

Even if Ryou's was lying around in a hospital room.

'You haven't heard from him lately, have you?' he asked.

'Afraid not.' And he sounded sorry. It took Ryou a moment to realise it was a response to his own tone.

.

Edo had an interview or something to prepare for so he hung up too soon, and Ryou went back to staring at the ceiling.

That was far too boring.

He switched to his phone. No point disturbing Shou and Fubuki…or Asuka for the same reason. So who could he call. Who did he want to talk too.

Juudai, really. But he tried the number and it was out of range. Just as it had been since his admission.

He scrolled through his contacts. There were precious few of them. Then he stopped at one and glanced at the clock.

Then he shrugged. Time conversions weren't really his thing.

He gave Johan Anderson a call.

'Hey,' the boy said. 'Wasn't expecting a call from you.'

But he was amiable. Sounding as cheerful and full of energy as he always was.

'Neither was I,' Ryou replied.

Johan laughed. 'You sound bored.'

'I am bored,' Ryou agreed. 'There's nothing to do but stare at the ceiling.'

'Ah.' The younger boy made a noise of sympathy. 'A visit would do nicely.'

'My visitors have left just over an hour ago.'

'That would do it.' Ryou thought he could hear some sort of chirping as well, but decided he must be imagining things. 'I'm afraid it'll take me a day at least to get there. But if you don't mind me dropping by tomorrow…'

Which was going above and beyond what Ryou had called for. 'I don't mean to call you away from your duties…'

'No duties.' Johan laughed. 'Haven't been doing much with myself lately. 'xcept with the Gem Beasts. And they're happy to see that Cyber End Dragon of yours again.'

'Really?' Ryou asked dryly. He supposed the other meant happy in the sense of itching for another battle. 'You do realise Shou has Cyber End Dragon now, right?'

'I never did get to duel him.' Johan hummed to himself. 'Still, I'm curious to see your deck too, you know? Got any of them new shiny cards?'

'A few,' Ryou said.

For Johan, it seemed that just sweetened the deal.

Juudai might have grown up, but he didn't think Johan had.

Shame him growing up also made him harder to get hold of.

He tried the number again after Johan had hung up. Nothing.

.

It was something to look forward to, in any case. Shou and Fubuki took a while in getting back, but once they did, Fubuki pulled out his guitar and played until a nurse chased him out.

It had been more amusing the first few times, but there was still amusement to be found there. And perhaps the security thought so as well, for they did not bar him nor his guitar in a permanent fashion.

Sadly, that had happened before they could have a mock match on his mattress, so that task fell to Shou again.

'You must be getting bored, playing only me,' he remarked, the mattress sagging a little with his additional weight as he shuffled his deck. They'd managed to slip in one tag duel, with two sibling teams.

'Johan said he'll be coming tomorrow,' Ryou shrugged, 'or the day after. It'll be a good change of pace.

'Johan…' A shadow crossed Shou's face, before he nodded thoughtfully. 'He might beat this new deck of yours.'

It had taken quite a bit of work and testing before he'd been able to defeat Shou's deck with this one. But duelling to test one's limits was very different to duelling for something else. Juudai, and Johan too, would call it fun. He was more inclined to call it passion.

Ryou finished shuffling his cards and cut his brother's. Shou cut his, before drawing himself a hand. 'You go first?'

Ryou did so. He hadn't made any modifications to his deck since Fubuki and Asuka had arrived, but it became apparent in a few turns that Shou had. Probably something he'd picked up in a pack earlier, because he couldn't see Shou stopping by the card shop in the last few days.

And then he blinked at the field spell laid down. 'I have never seen this card.'

'Hayato sent it,' Shou said, running his fingers over the card. It looks glossy, and Ryou felt it as well. Smooth. Just like a new card.

'One of his creations, I presume?' Shou had a few cards like that. A couple that were custom. Most that were prototypes or special editions. He'd seen some of Juudai's in action too. Skyscraper 2: Hero City was one of those, though it seemed Skyscraper was still his favourite one. Even after Neospacia. And the Neospacians.

He'd heard that the Neospacian support cards were done mostly by Hayato as well. Quite an honour granted from Pegasus, he thought. Though it probably helped that the one who owned the only copy of Neospacians in the world (unless Pegasus still had his rumoured habit of keeping at least one copy of every card in existence and then some) belonged to one of Hayato's closest friends.

Hayato, when he'd heard Ryou was building a new deck from scratch, had sent a few as well. A dragon that seemed to resemble Cyber End Dragon in its design, but was different. Not as strong as first glance. Not as easy to summon. But it had the potential to become lots of things. Like Cyber Dark. Like Juudai's Neos.

That card became the headliner of his new deck and he was grateful for it. He had less pride now than back in his Academia days, so there was no reason to turn down the gift. And it had solved a dilemma for him: of where to begin, of what to keep of the past and what to start anew.

Now it was just fine tuning. Testing. Playing. Pushing at boundaries.

The trouble was, there was one particular boundary he'd been aching for for years, and it was not to be found in a hospital room.