Chapter 19: Seasonal Memories

"So, care to explain?" Yugo asked, getting impatient, "How in the name of the King's Throne are you childhood friends with that guy?!"

"I was about to start that," Izumi said, a small glare being shot Yugo's way, but it very quickly dissolved, "I met Ren when we were about five or so, and it was on just a normal day. I had never known my parents, the bracelet on my wrist my only keepsake from them, so imagine my surprise when I met a boy like me: Alone and seemingly desperate for companionship. I approached him and upon seeing that cherry blossom coloured duel disk, I knew I had to duel him. Thankfully, he accepted, and as we dueled, we conversed, discovering our similarities. We both had no memories of any day more than a month or two back, which had always concerned me. The result of the duel doesn't matter, besides, I don't remember the duel itself all that much. I think we got hungry and called it there!" Izumi's eyes were sparkling as she recalled meeting Ren, a sad smile upon her face, "After that, we decided to stick together. He showed me this 'cool card' as I thought of it before I discovered the truth of its origin, Corrupting Tail Link Dragon. Strangely, I felt a call from the dragon, and add to the fact that its card design was unlike any I'd seen, although, then again, I was five, so the 'coolest card' I'd seen at that point was probably the Black Luster Soldier.

"As time went on, we stuck closer and closer together, until about five years ago. We had been on a trek in the woods for some fun, and we felt the earth itself shake as something entered the atmosphere. Ren was always the curious kind, and we approached the impact site, where we saw what strangely looked like a deck box that had been encased in stone. Carefully chipping off the remaining stone, I felt a call that I'd only felt when I was near Corrupting Tail, so my interest was piqued. Opening the box, there was but one card inside, which had a perfectly clear background and no artwork or effects of any kind. As I picked it up, much to Ren's objections, it started to fill in, the border going the pale blue of a ritual monster, and with an explosion of energy, we were pushed back. When I came to, Ren was still unconscious, but when I looked at him, I got rushed with feelings I'd never felt looking at him before. Some combination of hope, despair, and if I wasn't mistaken, traces of love, as in the romantic kind. But I could tell these feelings weren't my own, as we had shared a relationship like that of siblings for over a decade at this point. Getting close to him, I could hear a roar, one coming from Corrupting Tail, strangely enough, and I didn't notice it at the time, but my bracelet had been softly glowing for the entire time I'd been close to Ren. Picking him up and attempting to bring him back down to where we lived, I was assaulted with memories that were simultaneously mine and someone else's. Memories of a 'before', which I didn't understand. Ren eventually woke, muttering something like 'I have to complete this mission', which unnerved me." Light tears were now flowing from Izumi's eyes, her hand gently rubbing her bracelet, the glow of which was easily visible.

"Are you ok?" Yuya asked, placing his hand on her shoulder,

"Y-yeah. Just some memories that are a bit painful coming up." Izumi's smile was far from true. Anyone could tell that, and strangely enough, Ren, from his position bound and gagged also looked sad, as if there were regrets that he held, his fuchsia eyes dulled,

Izumi sighed as she took a small sip of her tea, "I better continue. Ren had suddenly had a major personality shift following that, becoming much more brutal and ruthless. He was constantly muttering about revenge, and would rarely meet my eyes, the times he did full of hate. He would disappear for days at a time, for a purpose I now know, but I only had the calming presence of the dragon in my deck for comfort. We had always been poor, barely scraping by, but after that day, we saw a sudden surge in earnings, all of which from Ren. He claimed it was because of some tournaments he entered, but there had been no major tournaments that would justify this level of income in months. I would often wake to find Ren chanting about a 'big return' or something, but the capstone was two years ago. Now legal adults, Ren suddenly wanted independence. I'd long since come to terms with the other set of memories in my head, and also gotten used to Ren's new personality, but this still came as a shock. He moved out not long later, but I would make sure to keep him in sight, so to say, but those disappearances for days at a time got more frequent and longer. Then, the next major event was you versus the Sledgehammer," She looked at Yuya as she said this, "After you used your Pendulum summon, I overheard him say something to the effect of 'I see no better time than now', and then he left and I lost track of him. That was until my dragon started to guide me, leading to me discovering the dimensions, but not that beautiful city in my other set of memories, much to my… annoyance." The delivery of that last part caused the group to let out a small laugh, which certainly helped the mood, "That's how I ended up here. It was just coincidence that I was here and I saw that massive dragon, the one with green lines, be summoned, and I rushed over here as fast as I could, but it did take me a while. I just want to get the Ren I knew back, and head home." Izumi finished her story, tears flowing once more.

"Hey," Yuto said, "I know how you feel. When Lulu disappeared, I wanted nothing more than to get her back. Yugo feels similar regarding another girl, Rin."

"Ah, ok. I'm afraid I don't know too much regarding the current situation. Would someone care to explain?" Izumi inquired, seemingly having regained that step she had when they met her, and they obliged, giving an abridged version of events, "That is certainly a rather confronting series of events. You say that you four and Ren are reincarnations of a duelist named 'Zarc', and I notice that that girl shares my face, so what does that make me?"

"According to Ren, if his information is to be trusted, I suppose that makes you a fifth reincarnation of the person who stopped Zarc: Ray Akaba." Declan informed Izumi, a look of surprise appearing on her face, which quickly changed to realisation,

"Oh! So those memories must be hers. I guess that makes sense." Izumi mused, Yuya noticing her slightly deflate, as if she'd been expecting to see that city,

"Anyway," Lulu interrupted, "What exactly is your goal? You mentioned that you wish to return to your home with Ren, but that's not all, is it?"

"I wish there was more. I only do wish to return home with Ren and duel once more as friends. It has been far too long, and I just wish that I could get the friend I've known for most of my life back."

"A noble goal," Declan stated, "Although, you do realise that you are now embroiled in the interdimensional conflict that we ourselves are battling in."

"Yes, I do realise that. I can more than hold my own, however, and will do anything to get the life I miss back."

"Would you be willing to join us in our fight against Duel Academy?" Declan's tone was rather authoritative, almost as if he was ordering her to, rather than asking her opinion,

"I mean, yeah, I will. They're the ones who did all this, right?" Her question answered with a nod of everyone else's heads, a look of disgust on the faces of Yuto, Lulu and Yuri especially,

"Good. I don't know your dueling capabilities just yet, but that is fine. If you have survived this long, I doubt you are anywhere near incompetent."

Slightly reeling from the harsh compliment, Izumi nodded, further sipping on the tea she had, drawing a slight bit of attention to her modified duel disk.

"May I ask what you've done to your duel disk?" Yuya asked,

"Oh, I just put some rudimentary dimensional travel technology in it. Just to control where I end up slightly better, you know?" Izumi informed the group, getting slightly confused looks from all but Declan and Yugo, Declan because he could see the practical purposes, and Yugo because he knew exactly what she was talking about,

"So you were also dragged around by a card?" Yugo asked,

"Yeah, I think I mentioned it before." Izumi confirmed,

"Yes, a 'dragon'. Would I be correct in assuming that it is similar to Ren's Corrupting Tail Link Dragon?" Declan inquired, wanting to gather more information about their new ally,

"I don't think I should share that just yet. I'm sorry, but I feel like it would be detrimental."

Interesting, Declan thought, deciding not to press further,

"You say you are fighting this Duel Academy, which is the organisation that did this, from my understanding. How much do you know about them?" Izumi asked,

"As much as I could get without my father getting suspicious."

"Your father? Is he that 'Professor' guy?"

"Unfortunately, yes. You know how we believe you to be one of the reincarnations of Ray? Well, he seems to have a goal in mind which involves the gathering of you and the other counterparts. Assuming nothing has changed in the Synchro Dimension, the only one that we don't know the whereabouts of is, ironically enough, the Synchro counterpart, Rin."

As Declan said this, the gems on both Lulu and Izumi's bracelets suddenly glowed much brighter, causing everyone to need to shield their eyes. What they didn't notice, however, was that the blue light of Yuya's pendant also increased to the same luminosity for that short while.

"The hell was that?" Yuto asked, uncovering his eyes,

"That's interesting," a familiar drawl said, "It seems that freed my mouth from the gag." Eyes slightly widened, the group turned, and saw that Ren was no longer gagged, said gag seemly having dissolved somehow.

"How did that happen?!" Yuya exclaimed, Izumi locking eyes with Ren,

"Hello, Ren." Izumi stated, determination easily hearable in her voice,

"Izumi! How nice to be able to speak with you!" Ren almost laughed, "It's been far too long, wouldn't you agree?"

"Ren, I'm only here to free you from whatever the blast did to you. Then I'm taking you back home."

"Oh? Free me? Milady, I've was freed with that blast. It awoke me to my true purpose. That being to reunite as one with those four boys there!" Izumi bristled slightly when Ren called her 'Milady', but otherwise didn't seem shaken what-so-ever.

"Those four boys as you call them happen to have lives, Ren! Like you and I had before all this madness. After I help these kind people here to stop this Duel Academy, I'm finding out how to fix whatever is wrong with you so we can go home. Together!" If you looked closely, you could see tears starting to well up in Izumi's eyes, "If what these memories that I gained are anything to go by, even this person, this Zarc, that you think yourself to be was a kind soul. One who valued the connection between Duel Monsters and Duelists above all!"

"If you'd look closely at those memories, which, mind you, I have as well, you will see how well that turned out for me, Z-ARC. I was about to assemble a kingdom, but then Ray just HAD to come and ruin it all by splitting the dimension into four!"

"Assemble a kingdom?! With what base?" It was Yuya's turn to explode at Ren, his pendant very noticeably glowing, "I saw what happened in those final days, call it a hunch, but Zarc, or Z-ARC or whatever was trying to utterly annihilate that city. To burn it to rubble!"

"Look at all the great Kingdoms, the great Empires. They were built over the rubble of others. For example, the Byzantines built over the remnants of the Roman Empire, Rome itself over Ancient Greece, the Norse and Anglo-Saxons built what the world knows as England over the ruins of the previous one, and that's just getting started! Rubble is the mere building blocks for the future!" Ren announced, pride seemingly in his voice,

"So, you don't deny it?"

"Why would I?"

Getting rather frustrated, Izumi slammed her hands on the table, standing up, "Please, just shut up! Ren, you were, no, still are my best friend, and seeing you like this is upsetting. You were always so kind, so thoughtful. If only I'd pressed slightly harder to not go investigate that damned meteor!" she cried, tears running down her face,

"That wouldn't change ANYTHING! This is my destiny, my MASTERPIECE! NOTHING would ever prevent that!" Ren shouted, his eyes seemingly glowing, "The meteor just was a catalyst to accelerate that inevitable destiny!"

Shocked at what she was hearing, at how vehemently Ren was spouting what he was saying, Izumi's tears only increased, burning against her face. "Ren, you know deep down that that's not true! That you wish to go back to what we knew before. This Zarc, he doesn't exist anymore. No more than that world he came from. Please, I beg you. Accept that what you think is reality is no more than mistaken thoughts!"

"Hmph," Ren scoffed, a slightly sadistic grin on his face, "You know what? Just let me free from these binds. Then we can see who is truly stronger. Who is right, and, more importantly, why YOU are wrong!"

Rage starting to flow rather intensely through Izumi's veins, she ended up punching the table beneath her, causing some light cracks to appear in the wood, "Ren, I know you think that what you strive for is true, but look at those memories. At the experiences that Zarc had with Ray, our previous selves. Do you really think that someone like who you're describing would be so close to her?"

"Just let me free so we can prove your theory." Ren growled, seemingly getting impatient. Izumi looked over at Declan, who shook his head, knowing what she was intending with that look. Sighing she sat down, much to Ren's disappointment, which he didn't verbalise.

"Thank you for your story, Izumi. We should probably head off now. Better to get going before yet another set of elites are sent after us. Make sure he is re-gagged before we leave." Declan strode over to the door, going to get the buggy that Lumos and Nox had left, the duelists in question having been knocked out by the Xyz Remnants.

"So, what do you know? You're just like Ren, in a sense." Lulu remarked to Izumi, who nodded,

"Yeah, kinda. I guess there are a surprising amount of similarities to our stories. I do hope that's where the similarities end, at least, for now." Izumi sadly replied, looking over at Ren, who had just had another gag stuffed into his mouth, much to his ire. As they moved out, they continued to discuss the events that had led to them meeting, but strangely, when they were about halfway to the spot they had decided on, Yuya, Yuto, Yuri and Yugo all started to complain about a sudden headache, and looking over at Ren, his eyes confirmed the same thing. After taking a little rest break they continued on, but that headache soon came back with a vengeance, and the boys all ended up unconscious.

Declan eventually stopped the buggy in a collapsed skyscraper, Lulu and Izumi having been looking over the boys and monitoring their condition. Declan decided to open the vital monitoring app on all their duel disks, and was surprised to instead see a cityscape, one that he hadn't seen before.

"That's it!" Izumi suddenly shouted, "That's the city from my other memories!"

"So, this must be the city that existed before the split. Before Zarc destroyed it." Declan mused, and the three decided to set up camp, always keeping an eye on the boys' conditions to make sure that they were all alright, the video feed progressing as a young man went about his life.

Xyz Arc, Part 1 – Fin

Next Chapter Preview: As he ran through the city, a boy was eager to find out the result of a championship match. Little did he know that the fallout of that would end up changing his life irrevocably.

Hey all, I guess I'm kinda bad at keeping my word, given that last week I promised to upload the chapter on time, but here we are, lol. Don't worry, next week's will most certainly be on time. Anyways, thus concludes the first part (half?) of the Xyz Dimension story arc! Next week will be the start of a 3 – 4 chapter mini-arc, where we will be in the Original Dimension. I hope you are all looking forward to this, I know I am.

Aquatic Dragon – I would just like to say, no, thank YOU for letting me work with you to bring Izumi to life, and I am glad that you consider me an online friend, I know I appreciate this bond we share greatly. Also, thank you yet again for more cards, and don't worry, chapter one of Xyz Part 2 will have Izumi dueling!

I hope you all enjoyed this week's chapter, and I'll see you all next week for the start of the 'Original Truth' mini arc! - NightWingBOI