Flashback Five-- Shattered World

November 11th 2030

5:00 am--Dragon's Castle--The Kitchens

The kitchens of the Dragon's Castle was massive in order to accommodate the amount of food that had to be stored for the Crimson Guard's members both resident and roving alike in addition to the orphans that lived there, apprentices of the Signer's and of course the families of the Guard that occasionally came to visit.

Two long wooden tables stood in the center of the vast room, three large stoves at the far end opposite the doors with two large ovens on either side, a long line of windows on one side above a long marble counter which stored drawers and cupboards under it. The opposite counter was of cherry wood and marble counter top very much like its counterpart opposite but was kept company not by windows but cherry wood cabinets on top.

Yusei stepped out of the pantry with a tray: bread, cheese, watercress, ham, fish: the type of food they had in the mansion spanned all cultures in order to accommodate everyone's taste. The Duel King had just sat down in the smaller kitchen just down the corridor with his early morning snack when he heard the side door creak open.

"Yusei?" a soft voice echoed against the soft stone walls as footsteps quickly approached. This kitchen was built for a smaller house but it was only for early-risers who need nourishment and the orphan children who went to bed earlier.

"Akiza, Ohayou," Yusei greeted with a smile.

"Are you always this hungry early in the morning?" she asked smiling.

"Not always," he replied. "Would you like a sandwich?"

"Sure, arigatou," Yusei nodded, an almost invisible smile on his lips as he made up the sandwiches on two plates. "You seemed frustrated last night," she commented suddenly, sitting beside him.

Yusei looked up at her confused. "What makes you say that?"

"When I went to use the bathroom this morning, I noticed that tiles had gotten a makeover. They were scorched black in a nice sunburst pattern," She looked quite serious but her eyes were warm.

Yusei grumbled. "I should fix that,"

"I think it looks nice," she teased, eyes crinkling.

"Blackened yellow tiles?"

"They're blue Yusei," she reminded him.

He groaned, shaking his head. "I could swear they were yellow,"

"Um, Yusei?"

"Yes?"

"I don't doubt it but what makes you so sure your sister is alive?"

"The Dragon told me," Yusei replied, looking down the dragonhead mark on his arm.

"He's never been wrong before," Akiza agreed, slicing both sandwiches in half. There's was silence. "Isn't odd that people you believe gone are never really? They seem to come back in some way."

"They always do. My parents are still alive right? I'm still alive,"

AKiza chuckled. "You Fudos do seem to be indestructible. You guys have that habit of making people think you're dead. But you're not,"

"Exactly. So why can't it be the same thing with Yuzuki?"

"There's reason why it shouldn't be,"

10:11 am In the Gazebo

The Gazebo was actually much bigger than it appeared. It had the tendency to vanish into the trees. Two long tables stood in the center loaded with food, the window spaces, covered by bug screens. Off to the side was a huge kitchen equipped with grill and stove and other things needed for outdoor kitchens.

"Okay, everyone just sit!" Akiza ordered as everyone scrambled for the plates. It took awhile but soon, everyone had a plate and everyone was seated. The orphan children listened to the recorded narration of last night before everyone settled on the grass on blankets, gathered around Yusei as they sat by the campfire. Remember; it's fall in November.

"Okay, I promised I'd tell you about Yuzuki so I will. This is the not so happy part," Yanagi had already set the disk to record.

"It's a good thing we waited till morning," the self-proclaimed historian muttered.

Yusei took a breath. "Okay. Mom and Dad didn't want to me, Yuzuki or Rylah to tell anyone they were alive because of Goodwin. They didn't tell us everything at first. They gave us the information in bits and pieces. We visited them as often as possible, mostly at night. Rylah came too. Anyway a few months passed this way and Rylah vanished into thin air one day after this next tale. She took everything with her but we weren't really surprised. She was gonna leave sometime; it was her way." He paused to take a drink. "Anyway it started as an average day I guess...." He took a breath at once again his eyes shone red and the group was pulled in the memories of their friend.

November 7th 2028: the Satellite

That day it didn't seem like anything could go wrong. We should've known better. In the Satellite, things go wrong eventually. It was a perfect day with the perfect sky. I remember I was standing on top one of the tallest buildings the tallest in the Eastern sector of the city. It wasn't very safe but I didn't find it to be a big deal. Nothing was safe in Satellite.

I stood on the old Gamer's 3 Tower, the spyglass to my eye, scanning the city. The clouds weren't many, scuttling across the sun on occasion. I swept it North and I could see the great dome of the Museum Plaza's main building, waving several flags on top. The Museum Plaza was in the violet corridor of the West Sector, which wasn't too far from the East Blue where I was. (There were five sectors; North, East, West, South and Central and each had six corridors: red, yellow, blue, purple, green, orange) Yuzuki and her friends had taken the Northern Sector from another gang and they claimed it for their own. That's where she was today.

"Yusei!" Kiryu called from the opposite rooftop two stories lower. "Stop checking on your sister; she's fine! What do you see!?" His shouts nearly deafened me, echoing off the buildings.

"Hang on!" The Eastern Sector wasn't ours yet. Three of the corridors were still held by a large gang and now....there it was. A blue flag with the crude charcoal drawing of a Harpie's Brother on it fluttered from one of the flagpoles of a five-story building. "I see it! Their base is at the complex! They have...one...two...five guards on the median line!"

"Good; I'll tell Jack, Rylah, and Crow,"

How we defeated the Sky Wing is unimportant. A few hours later we were celebrating our victory, rummaging through the cards we'd collected. Crow's were mostly for the kids at the orphanage. I took a few for myself and gave the rest to Crow and Rylah who liked to sell some for extra cash.

"That was sad," Jack muttered. "That was barely a workout, let alone a duel!"

Kiryu nodded in agreement, marking the east sector on his map in brown. "Three sectors taken by us and two by Yuzuki's girls." he reported. "Not bad. Now there's only one left. And those gangs are the toughest," He rolled up the map.

"Hey..." Rylah murmured, looking up. "What's that?" She pointed. We looked to the North, seeing a curling plume of smoke.

"I'd say someone lit a bonfire too early in the day," Kiryu judged.

"Hey, guys!" someone shouted. From atop a crumbling building, a member of the Sky Wing gang was waving.

"What? Do you want a rematch?" Jack shouted back. "In case you haven't noticed you have no cards!"

"It's not that!" he shouted. That's when I noticed that his two friends were standing at the roof edge with a spyglass of their own and binoculars looking tense.

"Come on, guys," I called. "I don't think that smoke is a bonfire!"

"May I interrupt?" Yanagi asked as the memory receded and they were sitting on the blankets again. "This is getting depressing,"

"He warned you," Crow retorted.

"So, there was a fire in Satellite?" Carly asked for clarification.

"It was more than a fire," Jack corrected grimly, stabbing his pork bun with more viciousness than required. "It was a disaster. But before we go on, let Yusei explain why he thinks Zuki survived," He was looking at the King of Games as he said this.

He ignored him, eating some Japanese rice. "Leo, don't you remember when you got your mark?" Yusei asked Luna's twin.

"Huh? Oh yeah!" Leo pulled up his yukata sleeve to reveal the gold coloured pinwheel mark on his arm. "I got this bad boy when me and Luna were dueling against Devak," he explained.

"Leo put his life on the line to help Luna; it didn't matter that he wasn't a Signer," Yusei clarified. "Yuzuki was helping others escape when the building collapsed. Because Devak was directing dark energy at the twin's Leo wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. That's why Leo got the pinwheel mark."

"So, you're hoping that the same thing happened to Yuzuki!" Akiza finished, smiling.

"Halt!" Jack barked. "As much as I hate to rain on your parade that was way before the War!"

"Tell that to the Dragon," Yusei retorted.

There was a stunned silence. "The--the Dragon?" Tank stammered. "What, did you have some sorta weird dream?"

"Not a dream, exactly," Yusei replied looking down at his mark. "Just...a feeling,"

"Does this have anything to do with the scorch marks on the bathroom wall?" Dexter asked.

Yusei sighed and sweat dropped. "Sort of,"

"What scorch marks?" Martha asked, sounding reprimandive.

"I think Yusei took his anger out on the wall," Leo explained.

"I'll fix it!"

"No, it's cool!" Leo protested.

"Why don't we get back to the story now?" Tanner suggested.

"Okay," The red glow returned and the memory came back.

The lookout point was hardly the best place for a lookout spot but we were riveted by the events unfolding before our eyes. We could feel the tension in the air; the bad vibe. "It's coming from the North Sector!" one of the boys announced. "My sister's over there!"

"We'll never make it in time," the other whispered in horror, handing me the spyglass. I was almost afraid to look but I put the spyglass to my eye. "There," the taller one ordered, pointing. We followed their gazes and my eyes glazed over in horror.

The Museum Plaza's white and yellow stones were smoked black and gray as plumes of smoke flooded out of the building, flames creeping up the walls.

"Yuzuki!" She had run out of the building, carrying three kids; one on her back two in her arms. She gave them to a red-haired boy in an ice-blue coat and another in a bandana...Rally his name was. Then Yuzuki ran back inside. "NO! We have to--"

"Yuse, we won't make it!" Kiryu objected. "It's too far!"

"WHAT?!" Rylah bellowed. "That's messed up!"

"Come on, Sparrow-chibi-chan!" Crow whispered from behind me. "Get out of there!"

I froze, my throat locked. I didn't want to look but I couldn't tear my gaze away. ~Onegai, Onegai, Zuki...onegai...come out...come out...~

Flames began to lick the windows, shattering the glass. We could see chunks of the building collapsing...

Yusei stopped speaking, squeezing his eyes shut so he wouldn't have to live through this memory again. The Crimson Guard watched the memory in horror and Akiza gripped Yusei's arm more to comfort him than herself.

(Yusei will no longer be narrating; Crow narrates aloud)

Suddenly a deafening explosion rocked the cityscape, as if the skies were tearing apart. The gang members gasped out in horror as they were nearly blinded by the flash of light.

Rocks slid and crashed together, the ground crumbled and crashed, whole streets descending even further into the ground, the Satellite shook. Vibrations pounded the already unstable structures. A pillar of flame roared in the air, sending up billows of ash, smoke and dust.

The building Team Satisfaction and the rival gang stood on began to crack, groaning as it slid backwards, collapsing under their feet. "YUZUKI! NOOOOOO!" Yusei's scream was stricken, mortified.

"Yusei!" I had called to him that day, tugging at my friend's arm. The cobalt-eyed duelist was in shock. "Yusei, let's go!"

"Yusei!" Rylah called. She and Kiryu were helping the others jump to the next rooftop

"He's in shock," Jack reported, slapping Yusei across the face. He seemed to wake up. "Move, you ninny, move!"

"I'm going," Yusei replied coldly as they ran upwards against the falling building, towards the back. When you lived in Satellite, you couldn't afford to be weak. Some people didn't make the jump to the next building but willing hands snatched their comrades from certain doom.

Suddenly the watchers were pulling away, the vision shrinking and receding into blackness as the whole scene shattered.

Present Day

Everyone jumped as the memory shattered like glass, bringing them abruptly back to the present day. There was a stunned silence.

"That was..." Mikage began her voice cracking.

"Awful," Luna finished, tear tracks visible on her face. She scrubbed them away.

"You know," said Jack breaking the silence with an almost thoughtful expression. "It's all beginning to make sense now,"

"What are you talking about?" Akiza demanded. Yusei was staring at the ground, breathing shallowly.

"I think we can all blame Goodwin for this," Jack continued.

"Explain, Jack," Yusei ordered, his gaze snapping up to pierce his long time friend.

"Fine then. Look. At the beginning of this little tale, Crow said that the people who brought you and Yuzuki to the orphanage tried to take Zuki-chan away. But Martha and you stopped them,"

"Where are you going with this? You think Goodwin tried to separate us?"

"Yes."

"But Mr. Goodwin--?!" Mikage began to protest. She stopped and sighed. "No, I wouldn't put it pass him now that I know the truth,"

"It does make sense," Crow mused. "How 'bout this? After the accident, it was days till Sector Security came! And they didn't even bother to search for any people down there. And most of them were...were...kids,"

"Most survived," Rally reminded them. "Because of Yuzuki. The fire started in the basement and Yuzuki made us all leave. There were a few stuck so she went back in.'"

"What if it was staged? To separate Yuzuki and Yusei?" Luna speculated. "To make Yusei and the others believe Yuzuki was dead?"

"Mom tried to find her," Yusei said. "She was there when it happened. But Yuzuki told her to save a little kid, about five I think. And then….the floor collapsed before Mom could go back for her."

"And after that little Crisis everything went downhill." Jack continued. "Yuzuki vanished one way or another sending Yusei into a state of stricken grief. Kiryu went nutso, Rylah vanished, Goodwin comes to me with his offer...it was all to push Yusei into fighting the Dark Signers. But why? There was something else we missed... something...that didn't happen..."

"The Gracelings!" Leo exclaimed, making everyone jump. "Remember? All the Signers and Gracelings had a dream of what happened up until the Earthbound Immortal Kokapacapu! But then when everything actually happened, things turned out different! Like in the dream, Akiza didn't join us during the Fortune Cup, she joined after the Earthbound Immortal first appeared! But in reality, she joined during the cup!

And Carly would've been a Dark Signer but she tried to save the kids in the Arcadia Movement and Sayer pushed her out a window and took her spot as a Dark Signer and she was saved by the Life Miracle Mark. Someone sent us the dream to help us redo what had already happened or what would've happened! Because some of us knew what would happen before, we did things we should have done in the dream! And since we did things differently, we somehow must have messed up whatever sinister plot Goodwin had up his sleeve!"

"Wow, Leo," said Luna. "I'm impressed,"

"Impressed with what?" her brother asked suspiciously.

"Your detective skills,"

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No! I mean it!"

"Oh?, Aw, arigatou, imouto!"

"We're twins, Leo," she reminded him. "And I was born first,"

"Goodwin never realized the Gracelings existed until the very end!" Mina added, her eyes shining with this new knowledge.

"So...Goodwin messed up...." Saiga grinned. "I'd say that's good news,"

The story of Zuki's mysterious vanishing... Hoped you liked! Stay tuned there at least two more chapters upcoming!