Chapter 52: Overlayed Rest
At roughly the same time as Chapter 51
As the sun rose in the sky, the citizens of the former Xyz Dimension rose from their slumber, ready to continue the rebuilding efforts. Said efforts had been vastly expedited by the arrival of crews from all the other former dimensions, every city willing to pitch in to help their unfortunate neighbour. The Fusion crews had been met with a bit of resistance at first, but they'd been allowed through once assurances of help were made, the workers even making sure they hadn't brought a single Duel Monsters card, so as not to provoke. By now, most of the rubble had been cleared away, and proper rebuilding could start. It had been a near unanimous decision that Heartland Tower would be rebuilt first, both because of how visible it was, but also the sentimental value that many citizens had towards it.
In one shelter in particular, two intertwined individuals were hit with the sun in their eyes. Wiping his purple and black hair out of his eyes, Yuto freed himself from his girlfriend's arms, the girl in question making a slight noise of protest. He smiled as she woke up, Lulu stretching as she sat up in their bedroll. Some residential districts, such as the one they were in, had also been partially rebuilt, and as such, people actually had places to sleep. "Rise and shine." Yuto teased,
"Like you've been up longer." Lulu responded, rubbing some sleep out of her eyes,
"I wonder what we're doing today?"
"Well, hopefully Brother returns. It's been far too long."
"Yeah." The two teenagers smiled sadly, thinking of Lulu's brother, Shay, who was currently in Paradise City, acting as part of the Xyzian delegation to the negotiation of territory and the war tribunal. Said delegation had included all of the Xyz Resistance, as they'd been lacking a formal government ever since Fusion invaded. They'd only really gotten one message back, saying that it would probably be another month or two until he returned, which itself had been almost two months earlier.
"I was just thinking," Yuto began, "Perhaps we can head to Paradise later this week for a date?"
"That sounds nice, but I'd want to make sure that we have everything sorted out here first." Lulu responded, a brush being ran through her long magenta hair,
"Of course." Yuto nodded, briefly remembering how they'd gotten together. Nothing fancy or romantic really, just a mutual desire and a tiredness of having been separated for so long. Apparently Shay hadn't been surprised.
Putting down the brush, Lulu stood up and smiled at Yuto, "Well, I'll be looking forward to it." Sweeping his girlfriend into his arms, Yuto gave Lulu a slightly passionate kiss, a blush spreading across her cheeks,
"And that was just the forward payment." Yuto teased, Lulu letting out a little laugh,
"If that was the forward payment, I can't wait for the rest of it." Lulu teased back, and the two headed out for the day.
Upon arriving at the now cleared Heartland Plaza, the two noticed a screen had been turned on, and a newsreader was speaking. "The 'Leader's Summit' as people have come to call it in Paradise City has been proceeding rather well, with resolutions being reached for the Provisional Government for both us Heartlanders and also the people formerly of the Fusion Dimension. Representatives Obsidian and Tenjo released a statement which will now be played." The two's attention immediately shot to the screen at the mention of Shay and Kite,
"As we have made clear, we are ever grateful for being chosen as the representatives for Heartland for this summit," Shay's voice announced, the pride in his position audible, "And it is with great pleasure that we can now announce that the Collective of Former Dimensional Leaders has agreed to the establishment of a Provisional Government in Heartland, who will be supported by the Akaba Corporation, and will have power until the city is deemed in good enough condition for elections to be held."
"Members of this Provisional Government will consist of a combination of Resistance leaders as well as former Parliamentarians and other governmental representatives from Heartland's previous government," Kite continued, the older man's relative lack of charisma evident in his voice, which was still gruff and gravelly, although he did look proud to be by his son, "Proceedings for the War Tribunal where war criminals from Leo Akaba's various invasions, both attempted and successful, will be prosecuted are also going ahead. Technically I'm not supposed to say this, but due to overwhelming evidence, I suspect that the trials will be swift and just." A cheer rose from the crowd, and the screen cut back to the newsreader,
"And there you have it, Heartland. Representatives Obsidian and Tenjo, along with our other Representatives are expected back by the end of this week as the Leader's Summit reaches its conclusion. In other news…" Lulu and Yuto turned their attention away from the screen, smiles on their faces,
"Your dad looked proud." Yuto noted,
"Yeah. Shay and he have been catching up, it seems." Lulu replied,
"You think either of them will want 'in' on the Provisional Government?"
"Hard to say. I don't see Dad going far, but Shay could use the experience. Might mellow him out!" The two laughed, and Yuto heard a beep on his duel disk in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw it was from Shay,
"Speak of the devil! Shay just sent a message."
"What does it say?"
"It's vague, but basically, he says we need to go to Akaba Tower for some meeting. All the others like us will be there."
"Well, I think that postpones our plans!" Lulu laughed,
"Indeed. Shall we?" Yuto offered a hand, and Lulu took it, giggling, and they set off.
Hey all, just want to start this by saying I'm so sorry for how long this took to get out. A combination of my motivation, or lack thereof, to finish this chapter, the difficulty of figuring out what I wanted to say, and a lot of stress from school were all part of it. I'll probably be back in form for the next chapter, but it may be out on Tuesday or Wednesday instead.
Anyways, anyone remember in Chapter 9 and 10 when I chucked in a throwaway line of Kite, by virtue of being older due to ZEXAL-lite occurring was Shay and Lulu's father? Well I nearly didn't. Damn, rereading old chapters also reminds me about how much I ended up dropping. Like I could have seriously handled some of the legacy characters I used so much better, but hey, that's what happens when you're flying by the seat of your pants lol.
Review time!
Willy499: Thanks for the review, and I'm glad you liked story!
BlaiseCandell: Yeah, you're kinda right about that. After the whump and angst you do need some good fluff. And I'm also glad you're looking forward to Pendulum of Circuits! The planning that has gone into that is making me look forward to the payoff.
Aqua: I'm so happy you loved Chapter 52! And yeah, these last few are going to be massive breathers for me, getting away from the *checks notes* 10 chapter duel that was Z-ARC and getting to the very end.
Anyways, thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all soon for the next one! – NightWingBOI
P.S.: If you're reading on AO3 and notice the tags changing, it's because I'm going to be updating them over the next few days.
