Hey, readers! Sorry it took me so long to upload. To make up for it, I present you with: two chapters posted in one week! :D

This is just a short drabble chapter right before the Kachidoki duel! So you'll see that in the next chapter!

Please review! :) I'd like to thank all my guest readers & reviewers who I can't message back! You all have such kind words toward my writing, and it really pushes me on! Thank you all so much for your support. Enjoy this chapter!

I stepped away from the center of the platform where Yuya had lain and looked down at what I hadn't yet been able to observe. There were multiple images near the center in smaller circles. While the body of the platform was faced with stain glass, these images were crisp and smooth, like oil paintings.

The center image was a side profile of Yuya to his mid-arm, eyes open and gazing skyward. He wore his typical red shirt, pendulum necklace, goggles, and his jacket thrown over his shoulders like a cape. Set over his jacket was a larger close-up of his pendulum.

I looked past the center image. Four other paintings were at each corner of Yuya's image, and one above. The one above was a head-and-shoulders image of his father—I knew it. I could just feel that it was Yuya's father.

The image above and to the left of Yuya's was of Yugo, the Pawn of Fusion. It showed him sitting on his motorcycle, holding his Clear Wing Synchro Dragon card up near his face. One of his eyes was normal—the other, nothing but a crystal blue glow. Hate crashed over me. It was the same way his eyes had looked when he had dueled and killed me, in his destructive and determined state. I hated him—him and all of the Fusion dimension.

I turned to look at the lower left circle from Yuya's image. It depicted a frontal view of a young man I'd never seen before, with wild magenta and purple hair and a purple cape flowing behind his shoulders. But like Yugo, he too had the same face as Yuya.

To the lower right of the center image was one of Yuzu, to my surprise. She was smiling brightly and holding up a paper fan near her chest. I found my gaze lingering on her. She looked like and reminded me so much of Ruri.

Lastly, I looked to the upper right of Yuya's center image. It was a circle with an image of me. My right hand was outstretched and my mouth open in calling a monster attack. My cloak flared out behind me. I looked determined.

Yuya's father, Yuzu, and myself were all close to Yuya. Yuya was strongly connected with each of the people in these paintings—even Yugo and the unknown young man, since we all shared the same face. The mural, the color scheme of the platform I was standing on—it all appeared to revolve around Yuya. Additionally, I had stumbled into this place while Yuya had already been here as his body was unconscious.

I stepped away from the paintings and slowly walked the entire circumference of the platform. The stained glass shards making up the face were predominantly light orange, red, and green, with flecks of crystal blue scattered within. It was the same color of blue as Yuya's pendulum. Strangely, it was also the same color of the light I had faded into as I had died.

What was this place, where Yuya's personage could still interact with me while he was physically unable to?

As I looked back to his image on this platform, it hit me. I felt my eyes widen and my breath vanish in shock.

I was inside his heart.

This platform was a reflection of his spirit—the colors, the people he was connected to, the ability to hear the voices of those close to him from this place. It was the place his spirit rested—presumably the heart.

I'm inside Yuya.

I thought I had died, and I had. Yet in my last moments of living, I had looked in Yuya's eyes and wished I could survive—for Shun, for Ruri, for the fight against Academia, for Yuya. And I recalled what Yuya had told me in our meeting here. "I wished for you to survive. I wanted to keep you safe any way I could." I was still alive in spirit. Something, maybe our similar wishes, had taken me into Yuya's heart. Maybe it was his pendulum; I wondered if it was a magical object. If Yuzu had one, Yuya could as well.

Does Yuya know that I'm here?

I didn't know how to communicate with him, and I now yearned to speak with him.

Will my spirit…influence his?

I had to talk to him. The only way I could get close enough to him for that chance was by seeing things through his eyes again. It had been an accident last time, and I had hated it…but I would do anything to speak to him now. I wasn't sure if Yuya remembered our meeting here in his heart, but I wanted him to know I was here, so he wouldn't be alarmed if he discovered it on his own later.

I wondered if he had felt me when I had seen things through his eyes earlier. He hadn't seemed to react to it. He wouldn't mind if I tried it again.

As I thought of Yuya, I heard a voice echoing overhead, just like Yuya and I had heard Yuzu's earlier. It was a voice I didn't recognize. "Up until now, you've lived your life strolling along a bright path without a single shadow falling over it."

Then came Yuya. "What are you talking about?!"

"I walked only a pitch-black path of darkness. I will not lose to someone like you! I will attain victory!"

Yuya must have been dueling. I heard the unknown voice again. "The wind of victory only blows for those who have seen true darkness!"

"I won't give up!" Yuya screamed in reply.

I admit the unknown voice's declarations angered me. He thinks he had walked through darkness? He had no idea what I had been through—what Shun and Ruri had been through too. And victory didn't always blow for those who have seen darkness. Heartland saw plenty of darkness—but we were nearly desolate now because of Academia, and they were sure to strike again soon to move in and fully take the town as their own.

I doubted this man knew true darkness—not even the half of it. People wallow in their own problems, yet they are ignorant to the greater things going on outside themselves and outside their world. I had lived through a piece of hell outside their world that they are oblivious to.

I was angry now. I willed myself to go to Yuya. He couldn't give up; I would be there to encourage him, even if he couldn't see me. My vision glazed over, and my consciousness started to drift. Then I heard the voice of Yuya's opponent again as I fell again into that feeling of vertigo. He was speaking to Yuya.

"Your own darkness will be upon you soon." What was he talking about? I wanting to know what was happening to Yuya, but hearing this man's voice made me hold onto my consciousness.

"Fall into the pitch-black darkness."