She shouldn't be here. This was stupid. What was she doing, creeping around back and forth down the street in front of You Show Duel School? It was closed. All of the duel schools were closed. Everyone was participating in either LDS sanctioned combat courses or they had their own regiments that they were busy preparing for the oncoming invasion.

What a dump, she thought half-heartedly as she glared at the little school across the street. She wasn't doing the best job of being inconspicuous—she was intensely aware of how suspicious she looked in her dark blue hoodie and sunglasses, walking back and forth on both sides of the street and continually stopping to glare at the building. Maybe part of her was hoping that someone would open the door and yell at her, or maybe ask her what she was up to. So that she would be forced to come up with a reason, because part of her wasn't sure she had one.

This is where Yuzu went to school.

It was a waste of her talents, Masumi thought without really considering what it was that she was thinking. Yuzu was a natural at Fusion. No real formal training with it and yet she had defeated Masumi, LDS' Fusion ace.

She felt something within her tense at the thought, then. Just thinking about Fusion made her stomach twist and turn, made her feel like she was going to throw up. Fusion had taken Hokuto's life. Fusion had invaded her homeland and turned it into a chaos prepared for battlefield.

Fusion had stolen Yuzu away before Masumi had even gotten a chance to know her.

Masumi growled under her breath and turned on her heel, planning to stalk away. She'd probably find herself walking past You Show again, she thought. Or maybe she'd go back to the music room. It was the only place that gave her any peace anymore, between combat drills and fear mongering and nightmares.

She heard a door creak open.

"Hello? Are you okay, miss...? I've seen you walk past a few times and I was just wondering if you were lost..."

Masumi froze as she realized she was being spoken too. She thought about bolting—but no, during the fear that gripped Maiami? She'd probably cause a panic. She turned to face the speaker and for a moment, she thought she saw Yuzu and her heart clenched.

It wasn't Yuzu, clearly, and she shouldn't have mistaken him for her. The resemblance, though, was definite. He had the same clear eyes and the same nose. He must be Yuzu's father, Masumi realized. The man who owned You Show.

Masumi ducked her head, mouth half opening. What was she supposed to say? Well, she had half wished for someone to notice her, and now look where she was. Careful what you wish for, and all that.

The man blinked.

"Hang on...aren't you...Masumi-san, right? From LDS?"

Masumi's shoulder drew up around her ears.

"...yeah."

She didn't look up for a moment. No one spoke.

Then he stepped back, opening the door a little wide.

"Would you like to come inside?" he asked.

Masumi wasn't sure how to say no.

That was how she found herself standing awkwardly in the middle of the tiny lobby, furnished with only a pair of old, worn couches and a few mismatched tables scattered with pamphlets for tournaments and duel colleges. Hiragi Shuzo returned from the kitchen with a cup of tea for Masumi, and she accepted it with a mumbled thank you. He half smiled at her. It was a tired smile...an old smile, like he was twice the age he appeared. Masumi had seen that kind of smile on her mother's face when she looked at the bills scattered across the table, after her father had stormed out after his yelling spree.

They stood there quietly for a moment, neither of them even drinking the tea, just...holding it.

"So," Shuzo said. "Are you doing all right, Masumi-san? What brings you this direction?"

Masumi opted to quickly take a sip of tea so that she could have an excuse for not answering right away. He waited, patient, like a teacher waiting for his student to fumble for the correct answer. Masumi finally let the cup drop from her lips.

"I don't know," she said, her voice coming out choked and tight. "I really...don't know."

He didn't speak for a moment. He sighed, then, and set his cup down on the table.

"Would...by any chance...have anything to do with my Yuzu?"

Masumi flinched and some tea splattered her hand. She almost dropped the cup, but Shuzo's hand snapped out to cup her hand in both of his, stilling it before the tea splattered to the ground. Once certain that she was all right, he dropped her hand. Masumi couldn't look at him, shaking.

"I...I keep thinking," Masumi said, barely certain of what she was saying, the words forcing their way out on their own. "If I had...won that match...Yuzu might not have...she wouldn't have...been out in that battlefield...it would have been me..."

She's too kind, Masumi had found herself thinking over and over. She saved me without a moment's thought. Every time I confronted her, she only met my gaze with determination. She never spoke a word against me even when she had every reason to.

Her hands curled into fists.

Yuzu is too kind for a war.

She's not aggressive enough to protect herself.

She would try to talk to them instead of fighting them, I'm sure.

It should have been me out there.

"Stop," Shuzo said, perhaps a little harsher than he should have. "The past is over, Masumi-san...and as much as it hurts me that my daughter is...so far away...I wouldn't wish this on you or your family, either."

He sighed, running a hand down his face. Then he met her eyes, and she finally lifted her gaze to meet his. She had to draw in a breath for a moment because...

So this is where Yuzu gets her eyes from, she thought. That determined gaze.

She saw Yuzu's eyes dance behind her eyelids and she thought that she was going to cry.

"What was Yuzu to you?" Shuzo asked softly.

Masumi dropped her eyes away. Yuzu's smile glowed at the back of her mind. The feel of her soft hands under Masumi's and Masumi tried to guide her fingers over the piano keys. Perhaps that had just been an excuse, Masumi thought. She had wanted so badly to see what her soft hands felt like.

"I didn't get a chance to figure that out," she whispered.

Masumi wasn't sure why Shuzo had let her up to see Yuzu's room, but perhaps he thought, somehow, that it would help Masumi cope.

"I've left it alone, for the most part," he had said. "So that it's all in order when she comes back..."

When she comes back. He had said it with a combination of uncertainty and confidence, a strange but understandable mix. Masumi herself wondered, sometimes, if Yuzu could possibly be gone forever.

She can't be, she had thought. She just can't be. She'll come back. She's too annoying to stay away forever.

Masumi turned in a slow circle in the middle of the room, looking at everything. So much pink, she thought. Pinks and yellows and blues, all in pastels. Everything was incredibly neat, too, her folders and notebooks stacked in color coded order, the drawers labeled with carefully lettered stickers.

She wandered towards the desk, a dark rosy brown in color. There were sheets of music laid across it, Masumi realized. She recognized some of the lyrics, songs that Yuzu had sung that night and during the days before Masumi had known the owner of the voice. Masumi ran her fingers across the notes, trying to remember the time she had heard Yuzu sing this one.

"Don't forget when you're missing me so, love must never hold, never hold tight but let go..."

Bullshit, Masumi thought. Bull. Shit.

Love shouldn't let go. Not like this. Not ever, if you could help it.

She drew a hand to her lips, pressing her fingers against her mouth. Oh. Love? Was she thinking...love?

Her eyes dropped back down to the notes and she continued reading the notes, hearing Yuzu's voice sing in the back of her head, a ghost that was clinging to—why? Why was she clinging so hard?

"Oh the nights will be long, when I'm not in your arms. But I'll be in the song that you sing to me, across the sea."

Tears bubbled up in her eyes and she couldn't read anymore. She felt her knees shaking.

Love.

She loved Yuzu.

Or maybe—maybe she could have loved Yuzu, if she hadn't disappeared so quickly. Was this real? Or was this Masumi's desperation?

No. It wasn't. Masumi loved Yuzu. She loved Yuzu's soft voice rising to the ceiling in song, the feel of her hands, the tentative way she picked out notes on the piano, the tears in her eyes when she sang that sad song even though it meant nothing, the way she had blushed in embarrassment about the song making her cry, the determined luster of her eyes when she was set on a goal, the way that she always stood back up, that smile of relief when Bloom Diva had managed to catch Masumi and—

That was it. That was the moment that Masumi had fallen, completely and totally, for the luster of Yuzu's eyes and the glow of her smile. Her softness and kindness and everything about her.

She crumpled to her knees, pressed a hand to her mouth to muffle her sobs...

And cried.

Why do I have to be in love with you?

She cried and cried and cried, she thought she might never stop.

Why can't I just stop loving you? Why can't I stop?

Masumi loved Yuzu.

But Yuzu was gone.

"Somehow, someday...you will be far away, so far from me. And maybe one day I will follow you, in all you do. Til then, send me a song."

Masumi was clutching the sheets of music in her hands when she left Yuzu's room. Shuzo didn't notice, or didn't mention it. Masumi met his eyes with all of her force, despite the treacherous tears in her eyes.

"I'm going to bring her home," was all she said. There was no room in her for a polite goodbye, or even a thank you. That was all that was left in her. A promise. "I'm going to bring her home."

Shuzo smiled at her with that tired smile of his, and nodded.

Maybe he didn't quite believe. It didn't matter. Masumi did.

Damn you, Yuzu, for making me fall in love with you, Masumi thought.

Until she stopped loving Hiragi Yuzu, she would not stop trying to bring her home.