Starting Notes:

Welcome back! I actually wrote Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 in a hyperfocus spree, but I'm not done proofreading next chapter yet, so you're just getting Chapter 7 while I take a break. :D

#7: A Will That Always Burns

"So that's the person that you met…" Keika tilted her head. "A person who used a disguise, and managed to hold off four people at once with barely any cards to work with…"

"And she had a dragon like yours and Yuya's, Keika."

Keika blinked. A dragon like her Sunburst Spark?

"To be honest, it felt like the complete opposite of yours," Yuzu admitted. "She was very peppy, confident and… well, she looked down on everyone around her and insulted them."

So exactly the kind of person that Keika herself disliked. And yet…

Something in her had stirred at that description.

She wanted to duel this person. She wanted to see that strength for herself.

"So that's it. I was just wondering where she came from. If she was a Link Summoning specialist, then she must be from LDS, right? But then, why would she go after Sawatari?"

Good question.

"A Link Summoning specialist…" Sora muttered, seeming thoughtful, before he turned to Keika, raising a lollipop. "You have a pretty serious look on your face there, Sakaki. Don't tell me you're gonna go searching for that person?"

"… maybe," Keika said neutrally.

"Well, you can't go now!" Sora folded his arms. "How'd you learn Fusion?" He really was oddly insistent about this, huh?

"I stole the textbook from LDS when I was thirteen, and studied for months on end by myself," Keika explained.

"What? So you're self-taught?" Sora exclaimed. "And you can Fusion Summon so well?"

"That's impressive," Yuzu said sincerely. Keika nodded to her, managing a smile.

"Wait, but—" Sora waved his hands. "How'd you get your Fusion Monsters?"

Keika took out her three Fusion Monsters from her Extra Deck. " … sent to me by an anonymous benefactor," she said. "Don't know who they are. When I got them, I practised until I got it down."

"You worked so hard to improve yourself…" Yuzu glanced away, her eyes going distant for a moment. "All on your own, huh? That's very like you."

Keika nodded. She did not explain anything else.

"Hey," Kanae said a while after dinner. "Come watch the sunset with me."

Keika followed her to the ocean, as per normal. It was a ritual for them now, at this point. There was something that Keika always enjoyed about seeing the transformation of the sky—something that calmed her.

"So, you gave a very summarised explanation to the rest," Kanae said. "Wanted to get stronger, persisted for months, got something from a benefactor and all. Determination and perseverance and blah blah blah. And the rest took that condensed story, but me?" The brunette leaned towards her. "I know you. It wouldn't have been as neat and tidy as that. Right?"

Keika sighed.

"Tell me about it," Kanae said. "I want to know what drove you for so long. And don't say it's determination."

… well, if Kanae had already guessed, there was no point hiding it.

"I'll tell you," Keika agreed.

Three years ago:

The thing was, Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz and Link were methods that were all exclusive to LDS. Keika knew this very well. It was the reason why LDS was considered the strongest school in Standard, without a single equal. It was part of the reason why everyone wanted to be a part of LDS—to have the chance to be special.

And yet…

Keika couldn't shake a feeling of irritation.

(It was a dream that she had once and now no longer remembered. A voice that had whispered in her head. Those methods belong to everyone. Trying to seal it off? I won't allow you.)

(She did not remember hearing those words, but the resentment was still hers.)

And besides…

Hearing people jeer at them, hearing those words—the coward's son, the coward's daughter—

They made Keika seethe.

("Just as weak as their father," people would whisper, as though they could not hear, as though their words did not add to the weight that caused Yuya's shoulders to sink, which caused him to be unable to look people in the eyes.)

Weak.

Weak.

And who is weak?

Not me. Not my brother. Not any of you people that would look down on us, not any of you people that make me want to vomit, you sicken me—

"Keika?"

The red-haired girl lifted her head. Yuya was there, looking at her. He blinked in surprise. Keika tilted her head.

"What's wrong?" She asked, blinking.

"I—" Yuya frowned. "For a moment, I thought your eyes were—it must have been a trick of the light." He shook his head. "Are you okay?"

" … I think I'm going to become stronger," Keika said distantly.

So that they would never be laughed at again.

Because right now, Yuya was too scared to become strong. Too scared to show himself, preferring to be laughed at instead of being seen as he was.

So she would never ask him to become strong enough to stand up for himself—he would grow up over time. Someday, he would become strong.

She just had to protect him, so that he would have that chance.

"Stronger?"

Keika looked at the television. On the screen, there was a Pro Duelist, and in front of him was a swirling vortex, with a strange monster emerging from it.

"Stronger," Keika echoed.

The thing was—despite her determination, it was one thing to decide on learning Fusion Summoning, and another thing to actually do it. From what Keika could find online, there seemed to be a blanket ban on teaching summoning methods outside of LDS. She found a news article online about Himika Akaba, who was one of the people in charge of LDS, and how the woman had sued a former LDS student who had attempted to teach Xyz Summoning outside of the school.

… something about the summoning methods being their property or something.

Keika searched online fruitlessly for several days straight, until she ended up exhausting herself and stopping for the time being.

However, just as she was about to forget about that goal—

She and Yuya met a student of LDS as they were walking from their school back to You Show. A purple-haired boy who looked at the two of them.

"Oh, you're the Sakakis!" The boy said, snapping his fingers. "I've heard of you! The ones whose father ran away like a coward."

Yuya tensed up. Keika bristled.

"Well, you're just stuck in your ways." The boy smirked. "You'll never be anything other than the children of the champion that ran. Especially because you're too weak to ever be accepted into LDS." He turned around, walking towards the direction of LDS.

Yuya looked like he wanted to bolt.

"Just wait."

The boy stopped, turning around towards her. "Huh?"

"Just wait," Keika said. Her face betrayed nothing, but her voice was cold. "Someday, I'll beat you and every single one of you who looks down on us. And I'll do it with your treasure."

"Treasure…" The boy shook his head. "You're crazy. As expected."

Was that crazy? To want to become strong enough to defeat everyone that looked down on her… to want to use the same strength that they claimed she was not worthy of to defeat them all?

No.

Keika refused to agree with that. She was not wrong. The world was wrong. At that moment, she threw away any thoughts that she had of giving up. She would never give up.

She would become someone stronger than her father, stronger than any of them, and then, no one would ever look down on them again.

So, since metaphorically slamming her head against the computer monitor wasn't working, Keika chose another path.

She snuck into LDS.

It was an impulsive decision, but Keika had always been known for making decisions out of anger. She was logical sometimes, yes, but those were only in the situations where she could feel nothing at all. And she could not.

Sneaking in alongside some chattering students, so that she could hide in their midst, she made her way to LDS's library. There weren't a lot of students actually studying in there—despite how many students were in LDS, it seemed that most of their students were content to just go through their school life without making full use of the advantages they had that no one else had.

Keika would admit that she would never understand that. Why didn't they want to take the chance to become stronger, when they had the chance to stand above everyone else?

Even so, it meant that most of the materials were still in the library. So Keika looked through the shelves. Many of the shelves had fiction books, which was… not what she was looking for. However, she found the resources at the back. There were some booklets there. They detailed the different courses of LDS, which Keika had no interest in. However, she hit the jackpot with the next item on the shelf—

A guide to Fusion Summoning. There were a few copies of it on the shelf.

It took Keika less time than she might like to admit to make her next choice.

She made sure that there were no cameras nearby as she walked away, and she tore the locator and tracker off the book, dropping it in a crack between shelves. Stuffing it in her bag, she left without triggering the sensors at the door.

The book was utter nonsense to her eyes. Even so, Keika persisted. It was a mess of different terms that were all jammed together at the start. Eventually, she at least got the fact that it required materials that could be 'fused' together.

Keika had a feeling that the book was written so badly on purpose. To stop people from learning it easily—to artificially make the summoning method seem harder to learn.

No one came after her, so she assumed that she was fine.

Fusion Summoning. It required an effect. Usually the Spell Card, Fusion, or other cards with Fusion in their name, or sometimes not. That was essentially what the first chapter was saying. Keika, quite frankly, thought that the writing was terrible, considering that it was saying "Fusion Summoning can be done with Fusion, or sometimes not with Fusion". In other words, nothing important.

She continued reading. Even as life went on, and their mother worriedly looked at Yuya and her, asking if they needed to talk to someone, Keika continued to withdraw into herself.

She didn't need to talk to more people. She just needed to become stronger.

It took her five months to understand.

It also took her five months to know that she had no Fusion Monsters to use this knowledge for.

During that time, she persisted. Yuya seemed to get used to people looking down on them, but she never did.

And around a month after she was fairly sure that she had gotten the basics down—when she and Yuya were just turning fourteen—

She found an envelope addressed to her in the mailbox.

Curious—who knew of her existence and cared enough to send a letter, after all?—she opened the envelope—

And she saw three cards with purple borders in the envelope.

… well.

Those were Fusion Monsters. She took them out. Adamante. Orihulk. Cardinal. Those were their names.

Her hands shook slightly.

This person knew that she was studying Fusion Summoning, even though she wasn't in LDS.

She might be in trouble.

There was a letter in the envelope. She took it out.

Keika Sakaki:

You do not know me. But I know of your existence. I know what you must have been trying to do. If you have not given up, I trust that you have accomplished it by now. If you have given up… maybe this will relight your fire again.

Life is difficult for you and your family. I know this. And I am sorry that I cannot do much for you.

Even so, please accept this gift. Happy birthday to you and your brother.

- From: A friend, R.

Keika took a deep breath.

She slid the letter back in the envelope. While she did that, she noticed several Spells inside it too.

This was a chance then.

A chance to truly become better.

She did not know who this was, but she was at least thankful to them.

In the present:

"So someone just gave them to you?" Kanae whistled. "If it was as big of a monopoly back then as you say, and it was catered to your deck—this person must be pretty high up in LDS, don't you think? Probably made the cards just for you."

"… I wondered about it for a while, but then I realised that there was no point," Keika said. "The person clearly wanted to stay anonymous. And I don't have the interest in finding them, either."

"Why?" Kanae asked, tilting her head. The twilight sky loomed from behind her—the sun had finally set completely, and the clouds in the sky were stained purple.

"… I don't need friends in my life," Keika said after a moment. "They're tiring… and if they turn their back on you, it hurts more than if you had never talked to them in the first place." All of those childhood friends that had crowded around her and Yuya, trying to get close to them because their father was famous… after those people had all left, Keika had found it difficult to find the will to get close to people again. "That's what I used to believe."

Kanae didn't let her smile fall at the gloom outlook. Instead, there was something almost wolfish to her amusement as she raised an eyebrow. "Used to?"

"… don't make me say it," Keika said with a sigh. "The sun's down. I'm going to sleep."

"Okay," Kanae said. She turned back towards the water. "I'd like to watch the sky a while longer." She raised a hand, holding it in front of the purple sky. "… the wind's nice here."

"Sure. Don't be back too late."

"I never am," Kanae said with a laugh. "See you later, Keika."

The red-haired girl nodded, before she turned and walked off.

As Keika walked away, she was followed by a rather focused gaze. The person watching her turned towards the water for a brief moment, watching the shadow of the girl sitting by the waves.

… she'll be trouble, in the future.

Good.

Then, they averted their gaze from the ocean.

Hmm.

And that meant that Keika Sakaki was alone right now, correct?

Good.

This wouldn't work otherwise.

"Hey! Coming right on through!"

Keika took a step to the side instinctively, barely avoiding the girl who flew right past her on a hoverboard. The girl turned to look at her with a wink, dismissing the hoverboard and landing in front of her. Golden yellow curls tumbled over her shoulders, down to her waist. Her slightly western aesthetic couldn't exactly be denied.

At the same time, this appearance… it was the same as what Yuzu had described.

And even though Keika didn't know why, her heart skipped a beat.

"You're… Cloud Piercer," she said, remaining composed.

The girl tilted her head, leaning on the wall with an aggravating amount of poise. It should not be legal for someone to look so cool when literally slouching against a wall. Then, the blonde grinned. "Oh?" She said. There was something oddly familiar to her—like an echo of something from far away. "So pinkie told you all about me? I guess word about me just travels that fast no matter how far I am from home."

Pinkie… she meant Yuzu, right?

"Of course, I've seen you around." The girl adjusted her mask. "I've been watching your duels. And you have an interesting face… you're not a minor character at all."

Huh? What—what was she talking about?

"I've heard that you're tough. And a whole new summoning method?" Cloud Piercer tipped her fedora forward, still smiling. "It seems that this world thinks that you're their protagonist. Strong, invincible, you'll never take a loss. Shall I prove all of them wrong, little miss firefly-san?"

Keika tensed up. This girl knew her name?

"Come on, come on."

"What's your name?" Keika asked, narrowing her eyes.

The girl actually seemed slightly at a loss on how to respond for a moment, before she laughed. "Idols don't share names with side characters," she replied. "If you want my name, then impress me! After all, you're the sun, and I'm the moon. The world orbits us. You're meant to be my rival, so I hope you live up to that. It'd be a shame if you didn't—I'm rather invested in you, after all!"

Well—this girl was different.

Even so—

"If it's just a duel you want," Keika replied, "don't get upset when you lose."

"Very good!" Cloud Piercer winked. "Let's go!"

End Notes:

Yes, the purple-haired boy is Hokuto Shijima. More on that when the LDS-You Show arc—or this story's version of it starts. No, I don't intend to bash him… but to be honest, he's pretty unlikeable, considering his duel with Yuya is just filled with him saying all sorts of shit. Still though, it was a convenient connection to make. Yuya doesn't remember this—to him, Hokuto was just one of the people who mocked him. Hokuto doesn't remember too, because he looks down on them. However, Keika remembers it all very clearly, because unlike him, she's very resentful.

Keika's 'friend', R is also exactly who you think they are. They'll explain at some point in the future.

Also, slight reminder to everyone that Keika is both an unreliable narrator and a morally… uh, different protagonist, for lack of a better word. If her thoughts don't feel very heroic to you, there's a very good reason for that.

If the amount of time that Keika takes to learn Fusion seems unrealistic to you, I'd like to remind everyone that she's self-taught, and she has no frame of reference at all. LDS's teaching materials are intentionally obtuse, and publicly released matches can be watched, but without actual understanding of card effects, she can't learn that easily. Unlike Yuzu in canon, who at least had a teacher who showed her where everything goes, Keika had to do it all by herself. The equivalent would be a person trying to learn French from watching French dramas with no subtitles, and reading French books.

In a sense, I wanted to explore what it would be like for someone to learn Fusion/Xyz/Synchro all by themselves in Standard, when only the privileged get access to materials. Keika's a stubborn person, naturally—if someone tells her that something is only for the strongest, then even if it takes her years, she will learn it. A person fueled by anger and a need to prove people wrong.

And yep, next chapter is Keika vs Cloud Piercer. Before anyone gets super-hyped or anything for Berserk shenanigans or something like that, I'll spoil things slightly—I don't intend on having any actual fusions between characters for a long time. And what makes you think that Keika and her counterparts can fuse, anyway? :D

Thank you to phantomdragons and T.V. 2000 for reviewing.

To phantomdragons, I'm glad you like Keika and Kanae. Like I said, they're the most important relationship in this story. And Cloud Piercer is back! Hope you enjoy next chapter. :)

To T.V. 2000, glad you enjoyed the duel. I wanted to make a protagonist who is strong, but not invincible with Keika. I hope the justification I gave for how she learned Fusion makes sense. Yuji and his sister… they're going to show up eventually. :) And that's all I'll say on that.

Thank you for the reviews, favourites and follows! :D See you once I finally edit the next one properly—it's a really important chapter, so I need to make sure there's no issue.