Chapter 51: Synchronised Reflection

The sun rose one morning, its bright rays reflecting off the glistening towers of New Domino City, or at least the ones that hadn't fallen. Following Z-ARC's arrival, the battle being waged had stopped, the Synchronians and the Fusionite invaders agreeing that the massive dragon had perhaps been a bit more pressing of an issue.

Following the dragon's felling, New Domino City had woken up to a strange new landmass off to the west, connected by roads that looked as terrible as the average Commons building post-invasion. It wasn't until a few days later until they, along with the rest of the world had found out what had happened. "After the attempted resurrection of the one calling himself the 'Supreme King Dragon'," their Duel King, Jack Atlas, who had taken up an intermediary position in governance, had announced, "It seems that our glorious city has combined with the other three dimensions in one 'base' dimension. The new land will take you directly to Paradise City, our equivalent in the former Standard Dimension. You will probably see new cards, new ways of dueling in these next few months, but I expect everyone to behave as a true citizen of New Domino should!" The other former dimensions had gotten similar announcements from their respective authority figures, with Jack Atlas, as well as some more diplomats, going to meet with their counterparts in order to negotiate what would happen regarding land and jurisdiction, as it turned out that the so-called 'base world' was that of the Standard Dimension. There were even rumours of a fifth city appearing out of nowhere, but there was even less known about that one.

The rebuild effort had been going well, luckily none of the spires had toppled onto major areas, although some had fallen, and several hundred lives had been lost. All the generals and majors in the Fusionite army had been captured and sent to Paradise City where the recently rebranded Akaba Company was holding a war tribunal, which the present heads of government also had to attend.

In the middle of what was once a relatively good slum two people in particular were helping out to move some rubble. "Say, Yugo, another half hour and then we go get some lunch?" A green haired girl asked her companion, wiping a bit of sweat off her forehead,

"Sure thing RinRin!" Yugo replied, his own blue and yellow hair contained beneath a white cap slung backwards, "Hey, how many bricks you reckon I could carry at once?"

"Yugo, don't," Rin scolded, "You'll hurt yourself!"

"I'll be careful!" Yugo said, walking up to Rin as she stood next to the water bottles, "Sometimes I forget that you're my girlfriend, not my mother!" He laughed, water washing down his throat.

"Well someone has to be the responsible one, and it isn't you!" Rin giggled as Yugo wiped away some of his own sweat, remembering the events that had led up to their becoming a couple.

Two months earlier

It had been a month since Z-ARC had been defeated, and Yugo had found himself in his room in their garage, polishing their Duel Runner, or rather, his Duel Runner. As a small reward from the King, since no one knew who had defeated Z-ARC, and they'd all rather keep it secret, he'd given her anything she'd want, to which she'd requested her own Duel Runner, to which Jack had smiled and the next week they'd gone to the shop that made the Phoenix Whirlwind, and she'd gotten to design her own Runner. Yugo got a similar offer, but he knew he couldn't, the Clear Rider far too precious to him to abandon for an, admittedly, better Runner. He'd just finished polishing when he looked up to see Rin sitting on the couch, a notepad in hand as she was planning for what they'd do the next day to help the clean up and reconstruction efforts. Now, Yugo, despite what some might say, wasn't exactly stupid. Sure, he might not grasp some concepts as quickly as his friends did, but there was something that he'd always been decent at, being people. He'd realised a fair while ago that he was in love with his childhood friend, and he was fairly sure she felt similar, partially from some accidental overhearing of her talking to Lulu, Zuzu and Celina, but he'd never been able to confirm.

Well, today was the day he'd finally confirm whether or not she loved him back, so there he was standing in front of the couch, a box of chocolates he'd saved up for by doing some odd jobs for his fellow (now former) Commons behind his back, Rin looking slightly confused, "Yugo, what are you doing? I thought that you still had some things to do?" She asked,

"Well… Uh, how do I put this? Uhm, I think this may be more important." Yugo answered, finding himself tripping over his words a little,

"What is it? Does it involve me?"

"Yeah, that's… Why I'm right here," Yugo let out a little chuckle, "Welp! RinRin, I love you! Please be my girlfriend!" He cried out, dropping to one knee and pulling the box to his front, offered up as if it were tribute,

"HUH?!" Rin exclaimed, taking a moment to recompose herself, "Yugo, get up. I just want to ask, what brought this on? And is that box why you've been out late recently?"

"Well, after everything that's happened these past few months, I was thinking about the future, and I don't want to be in one without you." Yugo had gotten up, and had an earnest grin on his face, Rin letting out a slight giggle, not caring that her second question didn't get answered,

"Do you know how long I've waited for you to say those words?" Rin smiled,

"R-really?!" Yugo stammered, going to pull Rin into a hug, tears of joy starting to well in his eyes,

"Wait, Yugo, aren't you holding something?" Rin quickly interrupted him,

"Oh, right!" They both let out a laugh as Yugo put the box on their coffee table and they embraced.

Yugo sighed as the reminiscence finished, and he smiled as Rin got up and pecked his cheek, their moment interrupted by a beeping from his duel disk. Reading the message that had come through, he looked to Rin. "Everyone's gathering at the Akaba Tower. Something about Declan having something he needs us all to hear."

"And who's us all?"

"I think its just us and our counterparts."

"Then shall we head out? I can clock us both out."

"Let's." Yugo smiled as he took Rin's hand and they left to go towards Paradise City.

Hey all, thank you for reading this chapter, and I hoped you enjoyed.

If the romance portions came off… strange, that's kinda cause I don't have much (read any) experience with romance irl, so I just wrote what felt right. I would also like to apologise for the delay, as I had some things going on school wise. Also, as you can see, these epilogues will be shorter, purely because there really isn't much that I want to cover in these beyond giving a glimpse of what's happened since, which in Yugo and Rin's case is they got together and are helping the areas that were Commons rebuild.

To answer the review:

Reese Nichols: While I appreciate the question, I would also appreciate it if you didn't steal your question from another fic's QOTC, which I can tell based on the punctuation, examples and general formatting which are conspicuously the exact same. But on another note, I don't really have an answer to the question.

The next one should be out soon, so look forward to that, and I hope that you all have a good day! - NightWingBOI