The filler arcs of YGO's anime are … wild. They're inconsistent, and the longer they go on, the weirder they look, animation-wise. But you can't deny that they don't add a whole mess of details and interesting twists to the world-building, and part of the fun for me is incorporating that into the stories I make about it.

I don't necessarily intend to make this nonsense realistic.

But I do try to make it fit.

.

"Were you able to leave the planet? In your old . . . home?"

Noa tilted his head and stared at Ryo for a long moment. "You mean, like, did Chichiue's simulation extend past the earth? Into space?" Ryo nodded. "Hm. I seem to remember it being possible to go in any direction I wanted. North, south, east west. Up, down. I visited the earth's core once. Space, though. Space was . . . complicated."

Ryo leaned forward. "What do you mean?"

"There was only ever so much that even Chichiue's tech could . . . render. Make manifest, you know? The further out from Domino I wandered, especially once I left the country, the more . . . janky everything got. You can be sure I visited every place I could find, and I did plenty of digging to find out what the limits were, in the world he stuck me in. I dove to the bottom of the oceans, I climbed Everest, I scoured the deepest and darkest caves I could find. But eventually . . . I started finding the seams. The parts that really didn't fit right with everything else. So, that was already a break from the immersion. But going out to space? Whoo-boy. That shit was weird."

"I suppose," Ryo said, "there is only so much we can expect a computer of that era to manage."

"I'm sure Aniki could do something better," Noa said. "Smooth everything over. See, the problem is that Chichiue wasn't an artist, and he wasn't a scientist either. I think someone who specializes in either of those disciplines would have helped him make my cage work better." Ryo always flinched when Noa called his virtual world a cage, but he never said anything. "By himself though, it just wasn't in the cards. Aniki, though? He's both. I think if you ever wanted to really explore space, but you didn't want to chase all the training and conditioning and all those hoops that come with becoming an astronaut, then your best bet would be him."

Ryo was nodding. "I imagine Solid Vision would make for a great training tool for space travel," he said. Then he smiled. "You really look up to him, don't you?"

Noa shrugged. "Aniki? Yeah, I guess I do." He chuckled to himself. "I can't really help it. I mean, he's why I'm here. He's why I'm out of the cage. More to the point, he's more of a guardian than Chichiue ever was, even though he shouldn't have to be that for anybody, never mind me."

"Do you think your brother sees you as his son? A child under his protection? Like Mokuba is?"

"I'm pretty sure he does. Yes. The capricious teenage troublemaker that Mokuba isn't." Noa gestured randomly. "That said, Mokuba isn't really the golden boy he projects to the public. Maybe you've noticed already. You're pretty sharp when it comes to reading people."

Ryo's cheeks went pink. "I think," he said, "Mokuba thrives on making people think he's a cherubic little Boy Scout. Ever the responsible, doting apprentice. The older someone is, the easier it is to underestimate him, and the more he's able to get away with."

Noa nodded. "Precisely. Yes."

"Did you hear about the time your brother funded a space elevator?"

Noa was still thinking about Mokuba and his various exploits, so he didn't quite hear the question as it was asked. It took time to catch up to him. So it was that he spent a good ten or so seconds, chuckling and nodding to himself, before he pulled up short and snapped his head toward his companion.

". . . Excuse me?"