Cat: So... Back to routine *cough, cough*

Rena: Anyway, we are actually not appologising for this being late. We have real reasons (for once).

Cat: I have exams in January, which i have to revise for now, so i would be expecting late chapters until halfway through the first month of 2015. I am sorry. I wouldn't sit them but i don't really get the choice in the matter.

Rena: This chapter was written last night and was to be posted this morning but then Cat had laser treatment at hospital ¬_¬ this morning.

Cat: *sobs* My face is all swollen! Please review, follow and favourite, if you think this story is worth your time! But most of all; ENJOY!

Rena: This story is in Yuzu's POV. Please give me some artistic licence. If i put some stuff that isn't in the anime in here, don't flame. There would be no point in reading, if it was just the anime in words!

Chapter 35- Academia and the Resistance

The sun was beginning to set on what felt like the longest day of my life. Gongenzaka's duel, where he nearly surrendered because of Yuya's disappearance. Yuya's duel with Sawatari, who pulled out Pendulum cards and had him on the ropes almost the entire duel. Then, Sora. Sora's duel which was… How do you describe something so…?

It had stopped being the JYC and it turned into a war. I was surprised to see the floor intact after so many bombs fell and buildings collapsed. My hands had been shaking and my breath became fast and uneven and I wasn't the only one. We departed the arena as pale as sheets.

Now, we were all standing outside Sora's hospital room, right outside the door.

"Sora…" I muttered, clutching my hands together.

"Don't worry," my dad muttered, being unusually serious. "I hear that LDS has a top medical team."

"But if that building hit his head before the Action Field stopped-" Ayu whispered, voicing all our fears. If what she said was true, Sora could be dying next door for all we knew.

Kurosaki Shun went way too far! They both went way too far! And now Sora is lying in a hospital bed!

Not being family, we weren't allowed inside the ward to see him (and left us wondering if Sora even had a family). We had asked for updates but the nurse said that it was confidential and asked us politely to leave and that visiting hours would soon be over. But we stayed anyway.

We took to lounging in the waiting room of LDS' medical floor, taking full advantage of the comfy seats and free hot drinks. After about my third coffee, my dad began to receive calls on his mobile, from parents asking to pick Ayu, Futoshi and Tatsuya up. Said three people were curled up in the corner and had been watching multiple episodes of TV on the screen attached to the wall but their heads were beginning to nod and their eyes began to droop.

"Yoko and I will be walking the kids back home," my dad said, shaking them gently and pulling them to their feet. "Look after Sora for us." We nodded, joining them in the ride down the elevator (yes, we suffered bad elevator music because we had been bored out our minds in the waiting room) and watched as they began their trek down the street-light lit streets.

"What do you think?" Yuya asked, as the group eventually vanished from sight, leaving just me, him and Gongenzaka.

"Huh?" I realised that he had been pointing his question at me.

"Kurosaki is responsible for all the attacks on LDS. I saw him take out members from their top team in front of my very eyes. What about you, Yuzu?"

"I saw Masumi get into a dangerous situation when she was chasing the culprit down too! But Masumi… Now she says he works with LDS, just like her!" I scuffed my feet, wondering how someone as stubborn and strong as Masumi could be confused into thinking like that.

"The one she was chasing was one of her comrades?" Gongenzaka blinked.

"I don't know why Masumi would say it like that…" I admitted. "But Yuto said they were attacking LDS to save one of their comrades!"

"Yuto?" Yuya looked over at me and I realised my flaw. Yuya didn't know who Yuto was. I had tried to not involve Yuya when it came to the masked duellist. Something in my mind just told me to. But now, I realised, it was time to tell Yuya. So, I explained briefly to Gongenzaka and Yuya who Yuto really was.

"So, this man Yuto is the one who attacked Sawatari!?" Gongenzaka roared, when I began to explain how I met Yuto, in the warehouse where I tried to duel Sawatari. "Why didn't you say anything about it!? If you had told the truth, Yuya would have been cleared of any suspicion! Don't tell me you doubted Yuya!"

"That's not it!" I cried, upset by his accusations but even more distressed to realise that he was right. "Yuya doesn't even use XYZ! But…" I hung my head, ashamed. My doubt was long gone. I knew Yuya and I knew Yuto. Two completely separate beings. But I still felt guilty for doubting my best friend.

"Yuto… A man who looks just like me…" Yuya muttered. "That's the same man who would disappear whenever your bracelet shone, right?"

"Disappear?" Gongenzaka looked between us as if we had both gone completely mad. I held up my wrist, my bracelet slipping down my arm slightly as I moved. We all stared at it, almost as if we were expecting it to glow and for Yuto to appear before us shouting 'surprise!'

"I don't know why Yuto would vanish whenever this bracelet shone…" I glanced up. "At first, I thought you were just changing out of a costume but you had no reason to do that!"

"He doesn't have any reason to attack LDS either," Gongenzaka stood up straight and looked down at me, almost as if I was still doubting him.

Yuya sighed, which caused us both to look over to him. "Assaulting their enemy is a means to save their friend who was captured by them…"

"Yes, Yuto said that," I nodded.

"Who is their enemy? Are they not LDS?" Gongenzaka ducked down to try fit his head between our shoulders, so he could be in the conversation at our height.

"Well… I'm not sure… But Yuto said that Fusion is their enemy…"

"Fusion!? Fusion summoning is their enemy?" Gongenzaka stared at me. "Yuto said that?" I nodded.

"Kurosaki is Yuto's comrade. That's why he's so hostile towards Sora…" Yuya trailed off, trying to connect the pieces of the puzzle which was the enigma of Kurosaki Shun and Yuto.

"You guys, did you ever ask Sora where he came from?" Gongenzaka queried.

"No…" I sighed.

"Even if we did, he would dodge the question…" Yuya said quietly, staring up at the huge building where, somewhere, Sora was recovering.

"Then there must be some kind of connection between Kurosaki, Yuto and Sora…" Gongenzaka concluded. "Kurosaki and his friends are all XYZ users and Sora was from the rival Fusion School…? Or something?"

For some reason, after the fiasco of Sora and Kurosaki's duel, I think this goes a lot deeper and is a lot more drastic than school rivalry…

"Could it be…" Yuya said quickly. "That Kurosaki and Yuto are trying to save their comrade from Sora's group?"

"I don't know…" I whispered, praying that that wasn't the case. "I hope not. Because Kurosaki will stop at nothing to try get his sister Ruri back."

"Their missing comrade is Kurosaki's sister!?" Gongenzaka yelped.

"That's what Yuto said," I responded with the words for the umpteenth time. If I wasn't careful, I would look like I was preaching his words or something. It was almost like every second sentence I said was concluded with 'that's what Yuto said'.

"If Sora's friends really do have Kurosaki's sister… If they really did kidnap that girl Ruri… I could understand why they would treat Sora as their enemy but…" Yuya said solemnly.

"Does that mean he joined LDS just to fight against Sora?" Gongenzaka asked. "No wait! Masumi said he had been in LDS from the start! Then why would he bother attacking LDS in order to get his sister back?" he screamed suddenly, clutching his head, making Yuya and I jump back. "I don't get it!" he wailed. "Just what is going on!?"

"Fusion and XYZ… I can't imagine it's just a dispute between two schools… There has to be some larger power behind it…" Yuya said.

I opened my mouth to reply, only to be interrupted by shouting coming from inside the large building. Staring in the illuminated windows, many uniformed LDS members were running about like ants and appeared to be searching for something.

"What's all the fuss about?" Gongenzaka asked.

"Contact HQ immediately! Tell them Shiunin Sora has escaped!"

What!? He's gone! But he was-!

"They're kidding!" Yuya moaned, as we all exchanged panicked looks.

"I'll call my dad!" I told the boys as they nodded and ran towards the security guard who had just been shouting orders. I held the machine to my ear and after a few long dial tones, he picked up.

"Yuzu? Is something-"

"Dad! Sora! Sora has-!" I babbled down the line. "He's gone!"

"What!?" my dad demanded.

"We just heard! They're searching all over but-"

I glanced up as Yuya appeared by my side, muttering a few words in my ear, which I repeated down the line. "He's vanished from his room and they can't find him in the building and-!"

"Calm down! We'll be with you as soon as possible!" dad coaxed me down the line.

"Ok," I stuttered. "Bye."

"Dad said he'll be here soon!" I turned the boys, who were glancing around desperately, hoping to get a glimpse of blue hair or blue and orange jacket.

"All right! Let's split up and search!" Gongenzaka announced. "I'll head towards the sea!"

"Then I'll go to Central Park!" Yuya said.

"I'll go this way," I pointed in the direction where the boys weren't headed.

I took off, not knowing where I was specifically heading. If I was Sora, where would I go? That thought confused me even more because I realised that I knew so little about Sora that I didn't even know that question.

The direction I was running in was in the direction of the museum, the airport and the warehouse sector, where the car industry was. I saw no reason why Sora would need to be at any of those places. I racked my brains, wondering if there was anywhere else he could be heading.

There was a run-down indoor arena down Blurwin Avenue, which used to hold the inter-city children duel competitions. But Sora had never been there, at least I didn't think he had.

Then, where would Sora go? There were two options in my mind, he was hiding from someone or, more likely, he was hunting something.

"Wait! Don't run away!" Sora shrieked. "Duel me… again…"

He was after Kurosaki. But where would he go to find him?

Bzz… Bzz…

I held my phone up to my ear. "Gongenzaka? Have you found anything?"

"No. Nothing down here. I've been trying to call Sora but he's not picking up, it says the lines busy…" Gongenzaka muttered. "How about you?"

I shook my head as I replied. "Nothing here. I don't think he came th-"

"It doesn't matter keep looking! He's somewhere in the city!"

I desperately bit back the scream that Miami City is one of the biggest cities in the country and Sora was just one person in the population of thousands. I agreed and then hung up, sprinting down more streets.

Bzz… Bzz…

What is it now, Gongenzaka? I snarled in my head, glancing at the caller ID and realising it wasn't the Steadfast Duellist at all.

"Yuya!?" I practically shouted down the line. "Have you found him!?"

"It's no good! No matter how many times I try to call him, he won't pick up!" Yuya panted down the line, obviously running too.

"Gongenzaka said the same thing!" I gasped back. ""Just where is he and what is he doing!?"

"Anyways! All we have to do is look for him! I'll call you again!" And then he hung up.

Sora was looking for Kurosaki. But where would he go to find him? He was a member of LDS now, so wouldn't he be there?

I racked my brains. If I was Sora and I was looking for Kurosaki, where would I go? I bent my head, trying to concentrate my breathing and ignore the burning in my legs and the agonising stitch in my side.

The warehouse by the docks!

That was where I first met both Yuto and Shun. And that was also where Sora had met them too.

It was a long shot, but it was worth a try. I doubled back on myself and began running faster back the way I had just came.

Cat: Yeah, not the best! Sorry! Please review!

Rena: Pretty sure it will be a filler chapter next because we don't think Yuzu will be in the next episode due to the Yuya and Yuto showdown!

Cat: So... Look forward to that!

Rena: Today's question!

So, you've magically been teleported to the Arc V universe (bear with me here!). Who's house would you stay in until you got your own?

...I think that question just won an award for weirdest one yet... I need help with these questions!

Cat: IN THE MIND'S OF MANY HAS BEEN PUBLISHED! Only one chapter so far, in the POV of Yoko, Yuya's mum! So, if you would be so kind to find it and read it? Perhaps review and follow, if you would be so kind? :P

Oh, and if i don't manage to say it later-

Merry Christmas!

(I'll not say Happy New Year right now, because i am hoping to get at least on chapter up by then :P)

Thanks everyone, you guys are my life xx

-animewatchers186

p.s to the reviewer (sorry, i think you were a guest reviewer, so i don't know your name :/) who was having a heart attack over the changing over 'Shun' and 'Kurosaki' in the story, i'm sorry it's annoying you but i will be keeping with 'Kurosaki' for now because Yuzu and Shun aren't on first-name terms yet. It's polite in Japan to address people by their second names if you don't know them, right?

I'm not Japanese, so if i'm wrong, correct me here! But anyway!

I only called him Shun in the first few chapters he was introduced in because his second name hadn't been given...

Sorry! If they do start calling each other by first names, i'll start doing that :)