I started working out an actual plot thread to "Lights" earlier in the process than I did here. But it's around this chapter that I realized I had something going. It's all about family, and threading it back together, even after it looks too broken to function anymore.

It is, like most everything I write, centered around hope.

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"Do you consider yourself a teenager?"

Noa frowned. "Excuse me?"

Ryo gestured randomly. "I mean, like. Do you . . . label yourself that way? When you think of teenagers, do you count yourself among them?"

"I'll be honest with you, Ryo," Noa said, shrugging, "I think of myself as little as possible." He held out his hands at his companion's incredulous look. "What can I say? I consider myself to be one of the most fabulously boring creatures to be found on this planet. Spending ten years with nothing and nobody but yourself will do that. Or, at least, that's what it did to me."

"I don't know if this is an appropriate response," Ryo murmured, "but . . . I'm sorry."

Noa shrugged again. "I guess, in the grand scheme, I do think of myself as a teenager. I mean, my years in stasis kept me emotionally stunted, but it's not like they didn't happen. I lived through them. They're still a part of the equation of me." He gestured to himself again, then tapped at his temple. "There's a reason Aniki built me an adult body, and it's because the brain in this skull of mine is Noa Kaiba, it's all that remains of Noa Kaiba, and it's nineteen years old. So, regardless of what somebody else might call me, yeah. I'm a teenager. At least until I turn twenty. I think, therefore I et cetera."

"Your . . . brain is still in there," Ryo murmured, wonderingly. "Your brother found it?"

"He did." Noa nodded. "I think Hahaue might have a conniption fit if she knew. Maybe she does know. I can't guess. Maybe she felt something, a kind of tickle in the back of her neck. Heart palpitations or something. Whatever."

"Do you know if your mother is still . . . with us?"

"I do not." Noa shook his head. "I tried, during those years, to reach her. But Hahaue had just as many connections as Chichiue did, and her connections hid her from his very well. I couldn't find a single scrap of evidence that she even exists anymore. No passport, no death certificate, no birth certificate, no driver's license, nothing. As far as I can tell, as far as I've ever been able to tell, neither Amaya Kaiba nor Amaya Hasegawa—that's her maiden name—have ever existed."

Ryo turned his gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"Yeah. Thanks." Noa crossed his arms over his chest and pretended it didn't bother him.

"Have you considered asking your brother for help?"

Noa tilted his head. "What? What do you mean?"

"Well," Ryo gestured randomly again, "I mean, your mother must have hidden her tracks specifically to avoid your father's notice, yes? Surely, she didn't think he would succeed in saving you. So it wasn't you she was escaping, it was him."

"I mean. Yeah. When you say it like that, it seems . . . obvious." Noa frowned.

"I remember you telling me once that the only man who's ever outshone your father, the only man who's worked more miracles than he has . . ."

"Aniki," Noa said.

"Yes." Ryo nodded. "So, it stands to reason, doesn't it? If your mother is alive, but you can't find her, then your father wouldn't have been able to, either. I mean, I'm guessing he didn't, after all. So, if your father couldn't do it, there's only one person left who can. Right?"

Noa stared at Ryo Bakura like he was really seeing him for the first time.

". . . Right."