A/N: And that's it. This one's structured the same as "The Beginning" because there's just a bunch of random scenes as opposed to a free flowing chapter…except there's more dialogue because the mood is lighter.

Lines to Cross

The End
Sloth

'And that's what happened,' Judai finished.

Not surprisingly, most of the explaining had fallen upon him, as the odd group of teens were slumped over in various positions and spaces in the Orisis dorms (his old room to be precise) and fast asleep, having nodded off some time during the story telling.

Fujiwara was there as well, one of the few people still attending Duel Academia who could see monster spirits; it was him after all who had notified the Principal to the slight problem. As was Samejima himself, as it was his business to know what happened at his academy. There were a few new people as well, a first year Orisis who reminded him of a mix of himself and Sho back in their freshman years, and the new Head of Orisis…who was coincidently an old friend of his. Although it had come as quite a shock, seeing Osamu innocently lounging there, and the pair had spent a good five minutes lightly bickering until the Principal brought them back to the matter at hand.

'I assume there's nothing to be concerned about then.' Samejima looked towards the ruins. 'No harm done.'

'Not at all sir,' Judai replied. 'Although it did give me a start seeing those guys suddenly fly out of the sky.'

'I'll say,' Yubel agreed, although the Principal couldn't hear her. 'Gave the other kid more than that.'

'I'll say,' Judai mimicked, looking over at Kouichi. 'But really, after all the trouble he went to to get his friends back…and all in all, nothing really happened and everyone's happy.'

Samejima shook his head; only Judai would think that little scare with the spirits was "nothing".

'Still, maybe this means we can see Misawa again…'

'I think you'll have to take that one up with Pegasus-san.'

'So how did you get rid of those spirits?' Judai asked, having managed to corner the younger duellist.

'I'm not going to get out of this one, am I?' Kouichi sighed.

'Nope,' the other said cheerfully.

'Well…'

Yubel eyed the boy curiously, particularly as he suddenly spoke very fast. 'I knew the area had lots of duel energy, so I summoned Demise.'

'You summoned…' Judai's voice trailed off. 'Cool, but how did –' He suddenly face-palmed. 'Its special effect; of course. But how did you pay the cost? It's not like you were in a real duel.'

'Life energy, right?' Yubel said, still a little confused. She didn't see any lacking in the boy's life force.

'Uhh…yes, but it's not – well…it gets complicated.'

'I've got time.' Judai's curiosity would not be sated.

Kouichi sighed, before explaining the Digital World. And Judai was not a quiet audience like his mother; it took him the whole afternoon with the questions and interruptions. And then it was explaining what Ofanimon had done to revive him and the extra force he had been carrying around once his own life recovered.

'You dropped out of school!'

Kouji's shout made his brother wince a little.

'Really,' he sighed. 'I can hear you just fine without shouting.'

'But…'

Takuya punched Kouji lightly on the arm. 'Come on,' he said. 'It's not as if he loves school.'

'But – ' Kouji repeated.

'You're wondering what's going to happen to me now – or in a few years really – without finishing school,' Kouichi finished.

'Worried rather…but yeah.' Kouji looked carefully at his careworn brother. 'What did you do then?'

'Stuff,' the other replied unspecifically, before elaborating at the glare he received. 'I sort of did casual work at Industrial Illusions, then took some odd jobs around and about.'

'Those are just fine for a sixteen year old,' Izumi frowned. 'But really, you should have considered what you would do after that.'

'I tried,' the other said quietly. 'I couldn't think of anything.'

'Well,' a cheerful voice interrupted them suddenly. 'How about staying here – oh, whoops. Sorry.'

'No problem,' Tomoki grunted, picking himself up off the floor. Luckily, Judai hadn't stepped on him very hard…although it was the unexpected entrance that had put him on the floor in the first place.

'Staying?' Both twins blinked at him.

Judai shrugged. 'Why not? You enjoyed duelling, didn't you? Looking past the whole why you were doing it in the first place.'

'Well…' Kouichi answered. 'Yes, but…'

'And you worked with Industrial Illusions and your friend for quite a bit…'

'Yes, but –'

'You could easily get a sponsorship once you graduate and go into the pros, or maybe you'd prefer research…'

'But –'

'…or if you like drawing, you could design new cards...'

'I –'

'Honestly,' Kouji snapped. 'At least let my brother reply.'

'…and there are people over twenty in the freshman classes…oh whoops.' Judai laughed sheepishly. 'Sorry, I always get carried away with things.'

'I'll say,' Kouji muttered under his breath, accidentally cutting his brother off. 'And Ni-san likes games of strategy, research and drawing so that sounds good.'

'…I believe I'm the one whose supposed to be replying to this,' Kouichi said, staring at his brother.

'You take too long thinking,' was the reply.

'I'm surprised to see you guys still hanging about,' Judai commented. Not that he minded his room (or temporary reinstatement) being a little more crowded than normal, he had thought a bunch of missing kids returning would be eager to go back to their homes. However it seemed they were lingering.

'It's not that we don't want to go back home,' Takuya, the only other in the room at the time, said slowly. 'And Shinya's gonna kill me as soon as I get back anyway, but time runs differently in the Digital World you know. While we could see what was going on around here sometimes – though times were all messed up so we never realised Kouichi was never at school or any stuff like that – we were in a totally different world, and one that feels closer to us.'

'Reminds me of this place,' Judai said. 'It's more a first home than a second home, if you know what I mean.'

'course I do,' the other responded. 'That's exactly what I mean. But still, can't stay there forever…and because we were with Kouichi the last time, it felt a little weird not having him around this time 'round. Though it's also a shame we can't share that world with other people ya know; most kids just got a glimpse of it and anyone without a cell phone back or wasn't a kid back then was out of luck.'

'Cell phone?' A small memory was nagging Judai. 'You don't mean that game about destiny or something, do you?'

'Uhh…yeah, that one.'

'You mean, if I hadn't ignored the message because I was in the middle of a duel, I could have seen a whole new world!'

'Judai,' Yubel sighed. 'You say that as if it's anything new.'

'You mean you've been there?'

'Well, that's not exactly what I meant…but yes.'

'Cool! You've got to show me around some day.'

Takuya found himself quickly forgotten as the weird looking woman and the older brunet continued their…discussion.

'Duel Academia accepts all sorts of students,' Principal Samejima said, fingers intertwined and resting atop the desk. 'And that at any time, for it has always been my wish to help all people, youth or adult, grow as both people and duellists.'

It was unique in Japan that way, as no other school would take someone who had once abandoned their education…for whatever reason. Kouichi's friends were another story, as disappearing was out of their control, but Kouichi himself had left voluntarily, and while he didn't exactly regret the decision, he was at a bit of a loss what to do for the rest of his life, except for learning through it.

And after he'd thought about it a little, it had sounded like a good idea. Judai was right; he had enjoyed it, regardless of why he had started. His friends were right too…and he had enjoyed being at Industrial Illusions. And Yutaka, after Tomoki had talked himself out with his elder brother, wholeheartedly agreed. In fact, he looked a little smug, but when questioned he simply said that he'd have no trouble getting his dream job with Pegasus once he graduated.

And that left Kouichi to try and figure out exactly what that dream job would be and why Yutaka knew it before him (and Kouji by the looks of things) and wouldn't tell.

'Welcome to Duel Academia,' Principal Samejima finished, after going through a few other things.

'Thank you sir.' Kouichi bowed to him.

'What sort of deck do you use?'

'Uhh…I'm still working on that one,' Kouichi said sheepishly, turning to find a partially familiar face looking back at him.

The other realised the confusion and smiled. 'Fujiwara,' he said by means of introduction. 'Fujiwara Yusuke.'

'Kimura Kouichi,' the other responded, scrambling to pick up the booster packs he had been looking through. He'd been rearranging his deck a little, taking out what dragged it through duels and making it a little more well-rounded and active.

Fujiwara looked over at the arranged cards. 'A life draining deck?' he asked. 'That's certainly interesting.'

'A little too reliant on spells and traps maybe,' Kouichi confessed. 'I need a few more monster cards, but I'm rather attracted to the cats.'

'I much prefer fairies myself,' Fujiwara said with an amused smile. 'Can't deny cats aren't handy though. But have you tried using Brain Jacker? That would be quite handy.'

'Brain Jacker,' the other repeated. 'No I haven't. An effect monster?'

'Yes,' the upperclassman replied. 'Its flip effect allows you to equip it to an opponent's monster and take control of it, giving your opponent 500 life points during each of their standby phases.'

'Hmm…yes, that would be a good one.' He picked up Necrovalley, and added that. It would benefit A Cat of Ill Omen, and it would also stop most of the problems he ran into with Jinzo. The only cards in his deck that would be ill-effected would be Monster Reborn and Pot of Benevolence.

'That would be a difficult deck to counter if you're not prepared,' Fujiwara said, looking over his shoulder at the spell, then at the deck as a whole as the other inserted it. 'Reliant on a single main strategy, but somehow still versatile.' His tone was a little nostalgic. 'Human beings hate being tied down. And they should always be moving. I suppose Duel Academia in that sense is like the tunnel leading to a new world.'

'A tunnel leading to the new world,' Kouichi repeated. 'This school teaches a lot more than academics.' He found himself smiling for little specific reason. 'That sounds good to me.'

'Sometimes,' the other said. 'I think it's the only place in the world that forgives.'

Kouichi looked a little startled.

'Darkness,' Fujiwara admitted, although he doubted the younger boy would have any recollection of it. Most people thought it to have been a dream, and really it was only because of Judai that the people of Duel Academia knew the truth.

'Darkness,' the other repeated, before smiling a little. 'That is a bit unkind.'

It was Fujiwara's turn to be surprised.

'Light and darkness,' Kouichi explained. 'The two things from which all other things were created, but they are a pair that cannot exist separate. They have different names but they complete each other, so where does one start and the other end? And beyond that…' He looked up from his cards to the other's expression, now contemporary. 'They are simply elements, or powers in a sense. Like all power, it is what is done with it that defines it.'

'You sound like you've spent a lot of time thinking about that,' Fujiwara commented.

'Years and years,' the other laughed softly. 'That's a story in itself, but a good friend once told me: "light and darkness are brothers. Darkness is not a bad thing unless you choose to make it that way." And it's true; we call the night darkness, and in the night we sleep and rest. We hide in the shadows when we don't want to be seen, or when the sun is out and we seek shelter from it. And things we attribute to light: the sun for instance, can bring about pain.'

'Sunburn,' Fujiwara laughed. 'I'd forgotten how brutal the summers were here…aah, but that would make little sense to you.'

'I think I'd like to hear the story anyway.'

'I think you have an interesting story of your own to tell. But it wouldn't be good for an upperclassman like me to stop you from doing your homework…unless I was to help you with it.'

'Ah, I'm fine.'

'You sure?' Fujiwara raised an eyebrow. 'You have quite a bit to catch up on.'

'Yuki-san recommended I fix my deck first, before –' Kouichi was interrupted by a fellow freshman, wearing a Ra jacket unlike the Orisis one he wore. But Judai's legacy had almost abolished the attitude of superior dorms, and it was like an equal that one freshman addressed another.

'Let's duel!'