Starting Notes:

Welcome back! *peeks out* uh, surprise? I know what I said, but since the chapter is basically done, I'm just going to post it. Note—this chapter is… fragmented. Very, very fragmented. It's all the stuff that needs to be settled before we can properly settle back into duels again, but all those things are too short to be a chapter on their own, so just treat it as a bit of a montage.

Disclaimer—there is a duel in the first half of the chapter, but let's just say that uh… it's not exactly a proper duel. *clears throat* We'll see how it goes. For all intents and purposes though, this is a non-dueling chapter.

Mild trigger warning for some blood, violence and a bit of twistedness—or just a general Sergey warning. If you don't want to deal with it, skip the first duel. There'll be enough context clues for you to understand.


Chapter 29: Flashing Sequence

"You say that he stabilised himself somehow?" Roget slammed the table. "How is that possible?"

Sergey Volkov, the Duelist Crusher. Infamous for injuring ninety-six different duelists in vicious underground duels, physically assaulting his opponents after his victories. And they truly were his 'victories'—up until he had been arrested by Security, Sergey had never lost a duel.

(Thirty Sector Security operatives had been dispatched to arrest him. The amount of compensation that Roget had to send out to the families of those that Sergey had killed had been far too much. Luckily, Security's budget was so high that it had absorbed everything. In the end, the one that had defeated Sergey had been…)

(Well, there was no need to dwell on old history.)

Regardless, after Sergey had wreaked havoc in the Facility, Roget had ordered for the man to be suppressed, and then mostly lobotomised—to suppress his violent impulses, and turn him into a soldier for Roget's own purposes. It was supposed to make him docile.

And instead, they had accidentally turned him into a fool, unable to comprehend any language, unable to make decisions, a waste of space in the basement.

(Someone with even a little more kindness would have recognised how horrific that was, even when done to a criminal. However, to Roget, it was just inefficient.)

"He's just been laughing," the engineer in charge of managing Sergey's body said. "We've managed to get him mostly sedate, but sometimes he breaks into laughter."

"... we'll send him out for a test run," Roget decided. "Kirijo has tracked down another group of invaders… and send my…" His lip curled. "Daughter with him, along with ten officers on duty." Both he and Kaname Mizuchi knew that there was nothing familial about the connection between them, nor even any affection, but it was important to keep up appearances. "At most, if he rampages, there'll be someone there to sedate him, and the only victims won't matter."

The man nodded to him, heading outwards.

Roget leaned back in his chair.

Soon, all of these disturbances would be cleared away. He didn't like that Sergey had recovered in a way that was out of his expectations—out of his control, but he would be a good soldier regardless.

All he needed was a little more.


Two Security trucks streaked through the roads in the early morning. One of them had most of the Security officers in it. There was a very good reason why ten officers had been forced to share a truck—purely because the other truck was far too dangerous for them to share.

The other truck was being driven by a silent girl, with a monster in the back.

"You."

Kaname glanced backwards for a moment.

"My name. You gave it back to me." The voice was a growl from the back. "Correct?"

For a moment, Kaname tensed up. It betrayed the truth—Sergey let out a low, low laugh.

"To think that the little girl that consigned me to that fate in the first place was the one to grant me my name again." He said. "To think that you were a shivering snowflake the first time I saw you, but your voice—it was like a god's voice, so crystal clear. I heard it so much, but it never sounded like my name until I heard you."

Kaname tilted her head back slightly, keeping an eye on him. He wasn't looking at her, so she could look at him without her anxiety overwhelming her. He… sounded sane. Far more sane than reports had led her to believe. So was he pretending to be more docile than he was?

She turned back to the front again, and Sergey laughed—far more wild now.

"Oh, you don't care! Still though, you're interesting." He was grinning viciously. "And the way that you dueled me back then… it was beautiful. You destroyed me—and now you've brought me back, just to destroy me again?"

No response.

Sergey took a step closer.

"Say a word," he said intently. "Say a word again, tell me what to destroy, and I'll do it—as long as you promise that I'll be destroyed again."

… what a masochistic, sadistic freak.

Kaname had never had an expression to speak of—if there was a lesson to teach people how to use their facial muscles, how to smile or frown or narrow their eyes in a way that was human, she had clearly missed it completely. However, her eye did twitch reflexively.

A truly disgusting person.

But a useful resource.

The moment that he looked away from her and she could breathe again, she lifted her mask slightly. However, she still couldn't speak.

How useless I am, when it comes to needing to say anything to anyone else.

"I will wait," Sergey said, and his grin was horrible. "Until you require my assistance."

Kaname unconsciously tightened her fingers around the wheel.

get me out of this place now.


"Crow!"

Shinji charged into the house, and all of them bolted up immediately. The kids weren't currently in the house, but the four Lancers certainly were, and Crow was there too.

"Shinji?" Crow exclaimed.

"We need to go! Security is on their way here right now—"

Then, Shinji let out a pained sound, being shoved down by a bunch of officers. Crow let out a snarling sound, about to charge forward, and then an electrified net shot out, hitting him. With a yelp, Yuya barely dodged another net, which hit Yuto and Sawatari. He was about to reach forward, before Yuto shouted at him. "Go!"

Yuya grimaced, but he turned around and ran out of the door, not looking back. If he escaped, then he could at least help the rest later, but he'd be just as helpless as them if he was stuck there—

He ran, and then, he felt a sharp increase in pressure as he turned the corner.

And sitting there was a white-haired man with a glowing red eye.

Yuya came to a stop. He was horrified by the sight of the man. He did not know how to deal with this—his heart was filled with the strong feeling of horror that he couldn't move at all.

The man raised his duel disk. Yuya looked back, before he raised his duel disk too.

Security was right behind him, right?

Yuya ran along the streets, even as the man pursued him, extremely fast, his stocky frame casting heavy footsteps on the ground. It was a living nightmare, and yet as he ran, he could only stay defiant.

[DUEL!]

Yuya Sakaki: 4000LP

Sergey Volkov: 4000LP

[Turn 1: Yuya] [H:5]

"I'll set the Scale 1 Stargazer Magician and the Scale 8 Timegazer Magician in the Pendulum Scales!" Yuya declared, his heart thudding in his chest—in the corner of his eye, he saw the man's grin widen, a shadow cast across the entire bottom half of his face. "Pendulum Summon! Come, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The red dragon appeared—Yuya hadn't said any of his usual lines when it came to summoning his monsters, because there was no time for dramatics. His dragon let out a howl, but the oppressive terror that Yuya was feeling didn't fade, even with his ace's reassurance.

[Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon (7*/S4/2500/2000/DARK/Dragon/Pendulum/Effect)]

His dragon picked him up in its claws and started running with him, seeming to understand his intentions.

Originally, Yuya had intended to stall out the duel, but the timer on his turn ended since he hadn't made a move after that, so it ended up being Sergey's turn remarkably fast.

And somehow, Sergey was now keeping at an equal speed to Odd-Eyes, meaning that he had been… purposely slowing himself down during the chase with Yuya earlier?

Yuya couldn't shake the feeling of being stared down by a predator.

[Turn 2: Sergey] [H:6]

"My turn," Sergey said, his lips widening in a crooked manner, a glint of metal from within his mouth. There was a whirring sound as he licked his lips, teeth glinting and scraping against each other. "Normal Summoning Thorn Prisoner Van." A large, thorned upside-down spire appeared, long vines snapping out around it. Odd-Eyes narrowly avoided tripping on a vine, and some of the vines wrapped around Sergey himself. One of them stabbed through his hand, and Yuya let out a yelp—unwillingly sympathetic to the pain. Blood dripped over thorns, slowly sliding down the long vine.

[Thorn Prisoner Van (1*/0/0/DARK/Fiend/Effect)]

And yet, Sergey threw his head back and laughed, wild adrenaline seeming to fill him at the pain of the vine that was currently mutilating him.

"Ending my turn," he said, and vines shot out towards Odd-Eyes, despite the fact that the monster wasn't attacking. It was reaching out, and Yuya tucked himself against his dragon's body in horror, even as the dragon tried to wrap itself around him to protect him, still charging forward. Yuya could see whip-like wounds across Odd-Eyes's body.

All he could think was that 'this could be me'. This could be him, bleeding.

[Turn 3: Yuya] [H:3]

"Draw," Yuya said, even as a thorn whip cracked against the corner of his vision. "I will…" He shivered. "I will have Odd-Eyes attack your monster!"

"I can pay 400 life points and reveal Thorn Prisoner Darli in my hand, and then I reduce damage to 0!" Van was destroyed, the thorned vine ripping itself from Sergey's hand and disappearing into shards of light, even as blood continued dripping menacingly. At the same time, before Van was destroyed, it flicked itself against Sergey's chest for a moment, drawing drops of blood from him.

Sergey: 4000 - 400 = 3600LP

"Then, Van Special Summons itself from my graveyard, and Special Summons Thorn Prisoner Darli from my hand." A colourful wheel wrapped by vines appeared, spinning around on the field.

[Thorn Prisoner Darli (1*/0/0/DARK/Fiend/Tuner/Effect)]

The wheel shot out thorns at him, burying themselves in Odd-Eyes's scales.

And Yuya—

Yuya was afraid. He could see Sergey gaining on him at an unnatural rate from behind him. Getting closer—

At the same time…

He did not want Odd-Eyes to be hurt.

And he didn't want—he didn't—

Stop it—

Stop it!

When Yuya opened his eyes again, they were glowing red. As he glanced back at Sergey, the bright red eyes seemed to sear directly into the humanoid horror's gaze.

Sergey cackled, unlike any rational response. "Yes! Yes!" He charged forward. "Be destroyed—"

An elbow met the back of Yuya's head, knocking him to the ground and knocking him unconscious immediately, before anything unnecessarily awful could happen.

'Security Override. Duel Terminated.' The holograms faded, leaving the white-haired figure directly between Yuya and Sergey.

Sergey stared. The girl looked down at Yuya.

he truly looks the same as Yugo.

It's the same rage that I saw then too.

She looked back at Sergey, a fierce look in her eye.

Sergey cracked a horrific smile. "As you wish," he said, and he made no move.

The white-haired girl gently lifted up the boy with tomato-coloured hair, and she began walking towards the truck. Behind her, the insane man followed, still grinning widely.


"You keep talking about this friend of yours, Z_." A pink and red-haired woman raised an eyebrow, putting her hands on her hips and tilting her head. "Am I ever going to meet them?"

"Oh?" A white and green-haired man smirked. "Are you jealous, R_?" The woman huffed, slamming a hand against the top of his head. Both of their faces were mostly shrouded in fog, but there was a hint of a blush on her face, despite how irritated she sounded when she spoke up again.

"As if. You're my best friend, Z_, I'm just curious about who else managed to find you tolerable enough to befriend you." The woman raised a hand before he could make another joke. "And I know you're going to say that your dragons count, but the idea of you actually talking to another human is baffling to me, you know! What if they're just using you?"

"She wouldn't do that," the man said confidently. "I mean, what would they even gain from that? We've just been hanging out, with her offering these weird tips—like, ideas that no normal person would ever think of—and occasionally providing snacks. She's really nice." There was the sound of something fond to his voice, and the woman's eyes softened.

"Well, I'm glad you get along so well with someone. What's her name?"

"Uh… she asked me not to tell anyone."

"… what is she, some shut-in super spy?" The woman rolled her eyes. "Whatever. My dad wants us to test the Action Field again today. Are you in?"

"Of course."

As the man walked away alongside his best friend, he glanced backwards for a moment. He cracked a smile and waved.

The quiet woman in the park waved, and then she spun around and walked off too.


"—uya. Yuya."

Slowly, Yuya stirred. The first thing he noticed was the low rumbling of wheels against the road—clearly, he was in the back of a truck, and being carried somewhere. He had been handcuffed, and they were chafing against his skin—and alright, he still wasn't fully awake yet, but what was that dream that he'd just had?

"Yuya, are you alright?"

Yuya glanced forward, his vision slightly blurry for a moment, before he focused on Yuto, who was sitting on the opposite side of him.

"I'm alright," he said, deciding to push away that absurdly vivid dream for now—it was probably not real anyway, even if it was sticking to his mind uncomfortably. He glanced around. Sawatari and Kyorin were both there, as were Crow and Shinji. Sawatari looked a little subdued—had he tried to argue with Security and been shut down? That seemed likely, considering his personality. "Uh—sorry, Crow, Shinji."

Shinji shrugged dismissively. "Don't worry about it," he said. "Security tends to arrest Commons for little to no reason anyway—making eye contact with a Top can get you a year if you're not careful. Most importantly, we managed to stop the kids from being caught." He elbowed Crow, who looked rather worried. "And our friends on the outside will protect the kids, so there's no need to worry." He was clearly saying this more to reassure Crow than to actually assuage Yuya's guilt, but that was fine.

"Yeah," Crow said, smiling back at Shinji.

"Can I ask where they're taking us?" Yuya asked after a moment.

Shinji snorted. "If Security arrests you and takes you somewhere in a car, it can only be going to one place—the prison from which supposedly there's no escape, the Facility!"

In an overly well-timed manner, the truck came to a stop right as Shinji announced their location. The door at the back of the truck cracked open, and Yuya shielded his eyes from the bright spotlights outside. The six of them were ushered out of the truck, facing towards twin buildings that were both dark grey, imposing—towering over them, blotting out the sun above them.

"Come on, this is a misunderstanding," Sawatari tried to convince the guard holding onto him. "My dad, he's in a high position! I'd never commit a crime!"

The guard raised an eyebrow. "What's your family name?"

"Sawatari!"

The man turned to another guard, who had pulled out his phone. When that guard shook his head, the first one kneed Sawatari in the stomach, slamming him to the ground.

"I should've known that a filthy Common would try to pretend to be a Top," he said. "Get up!" He kicked Sawatari, and Yuya winced. He saw Yuto gritting his teeth, about to try and break free.

When the guard lifted his leg again, Yuya spoke up, even though he knew that he shouldn't. "Don't!"

The guard turned his attention to him.

… this was going to be messy…

A hand pressed itself against the guard's shoulder before anything else happened. The guard turned around and paled—and simultaneously, half of the guards there flinched in shock.

"Overseer," the guard said, sounding strangled.

The woman flicked a hand towards the door of the Facility, before she headed back to the truck.

The guard took a moment to recover, before the six of them were promptly pushed towards the door of the Facility. No one there commented on the interaction, or on the fact that they had all seemed terrified for a moment. The inside of the Facility was a dark, cylindrical chamber, with cells built into the walls, along several floors. It seemed almost endless when looking up—the sheer scale of the cells, coupled with the fact that the cells all seemed to be filled with some people, spoke to the scale of the injustice that had been committed against these people.

"Hand over your duel disks," the guard ordered. However, Yuya noticed that they were allowed to keep their decks, though he didn't understand why. The six of them were all sent into a cell that already had some people in it. As the door shut behind them, Yuya felt a sense of crawling despair.

And, well, he still wasn't fully over the 'duel' from earlier. He didn't even know how he had blacked out.

"Oh," one of the other prisoners here said in a very familiar voice. They hadn't been paying attention to the others in the room, but suddenly, all gazes turned over. "Well, why am I not surprised to see you guys here?"

"... Mion!" Sawatari sounded like he had just been told that it was his birthday and he was going to get ten cakes and a whole parade of balloons. Sawatari's older sister waved to them, standing up and walking over.

Mion spun around. "Yuno, Dennis, wake up! We have company."

In the corner, which had been hidden from view by the two figures, Yuno picked himself off the ground, as did Dennis—both of them had clearly been taking a nap, their orange hair completely messed up, with some dust caught in it.

"Yuya!" Yuno broke into a bright smile, immediately getting to his feet.

"Dennis!" Kyorin herself also waved to Dennis, and there was some scuffling of feet as the Lancers all reunited. Mion, being the worrywart that she always was, looked over all of them, and she seemed annoyed at the fact that Sawatari had a black eye from his experience with the guard earlier. Meanwhile, Yuno was quizzing Yuya about what had happened, with Yuto sitting on the bed next to them and calmly filling in any gaps that Yuya was leaving out in his story. Kyorin and Dennis had joined Mion and Sawatari, also chatting with them.

Caught up in the reunion, Yuya forgot about Crow and Shinji for a moment until Crow cleared his throat and spoke up.

"So these are your comrades?"

"Yes," Yuya said.

Mion stood up, holding out a hand to Crow. "You must have been taking care of them for the last few days," she said. "I'm Mion Myojin, I'm…" She glanced behind her. "The oldest one currently here, along with Kyorin, I believe. Thank you for taking care of my comrades." She gestured to the other two. "These are—"

"Dennis Mackfield!" Dennis interrupted with a wink.

"Yuno Sugisaki," Yuno added.

Now that the atmosphere had become somewhat more serious, Yuya had the presence of mind to turn to Yuno and ask a very important question. "How did you all end up here?"

"Uh, Serena, Kurosaki and I ended up in an underground dueling circuit," Dennis said. "We ended up getting arrested—they assumed that we were invaders from another place because we were using different summoning methods, and they arrested us."

"Serena and Kurosaki are here?"

"Yes. Serena was placed in a separate part of the Facility," Dennis explained. "Kurosaki got pissed off at that and tried to fistfight the guards. He broke one of their arms and got sent to solitary confinement."

"... sounds about right," Yuto said. He knew how reckless his best friend was, after all.

"I think I like this Kurosaki guy," Shinji said with a half-hearted grin.

"But are you all the only ones here?" Kyorin questioned. "What about the rest?"

"No offence to my sister," Yuto said with lidded eyes, "but I'm shocked that she didn't immediately end up here."

"No one else is here," Yuno explained. "I was arrested by this woman who used, uh, Crystrons?"

Crow's eyes widened. "You encountered Arisu Kirijo?"

"That was her name, yeah." Yuno blinked. "Is she a big deal?"

"She's the second-highest ranked Security Officer in the City," Crow said. "Though she's known for being the champion of the Commons in Security—she always investigates suspicious claims for arrest and she does her best to get people out of here if they're not deserving."

"She's one of the only good ones," Shinji admitted gruffly. Yuto raised an eyebrow—Shinji was so intolerant of Security and the Tops that for him to say something good about a Security member spoke volumes. "In that case, if you two were arrested together, was the one that caught you a woman with orange hair?" He directed the question towards Mion, who shook her head. It was Dennis that responded.

"No, that one caught Serena and I! Her Naturias were awful to face against… there was also this other black-haired guy with dragons."

Crow and Shinji both looked confused. "Those two don't normally work together," Crow elaborated. "Makoto Toyama is…" Both of them seemed to still for a moment. "The Ghost's partner."

The Ghost…

Yuya thought about that white-haired woman from outside.

"The girl with the weird ghostly fish?" Mion said. "Yeah. She arrested me."

"You dueled the Ghost?" Crow looked incredulous. "That's… she almost never duels anyone at all. You must have pissed off the Director of Security, if he sent her of all people after you." He leaned back. "Well… are your friends likely to come and search for you?"

"Probably," Kyorin said.

"Definitely," both Yuno and Mion said at the same time. Yuno continued talking. "But I'd rather make it out ourselves."

Crow cracked a smile. "That's something that we can both agree on," he said.


However, despite that, there was still very little that they could do without information, so for now, all they could do was bide their time.

"You look shaken."

Yuya looked up at Yuno, surprised as the red and orange-haired boy sat back down next to him, holding a cup of water for both of them.

"The water from the tap isn't drinkable," Yuno informed quietly. "Don't use the sink—it's really disgusting and choked up. Mion, Dennis and I sneak the cups down during lunchtime to get some extra water just in case, but try to hydrate yourself a lot during that time." He glanced up. "Hey, Yuto."

Yuto sat down opposite Yuya, the three boys with the same face looking at each other. "I saw that you looked bothered," he said to Yuya. "And… something odd happened to me just now, when we were getting captured. I don't know if it had to do with you, but…"

"Did you black out too?" Yuno asked. "Yeah, I completely blacked out earlier…"

The two of them had blacked out? And Yuya, at the same time, had lost consciousness while dueling against Sergey.

It was this odd connection between them again, like that day in the park. Whatever this connection was…

Yuya relayed the details of his dream to the other two, as well as the horrific experience that he'd had with the strange man.

Yuno let out an annoyed sound. "Sounds awful. Sorry that you had to go through that."

Yuto patted Yuya's shoulder. "But you don't remember what caused you to pass out?"

"I just wanted him to stop hurting Odd-Eyes," Yuya confided in them. "I don't know, Odd-Eyes was trying so hard to protect me, and I was so angry…"

"I understand," Yuno said. "They're our partners, aren't they?" He grimaced. "It's not the first time that we've all fainted at the same time though—Mion said that my eyes started glowing slightly." He grimaced. "There's a connection between the three of us—and maybe the other three with the same face as us too."

"Then, there has to be a connection between our best friends too," Yuya said. Yuzu, and Miharu, and Ruri… the girls with the bracelets, that Academia wanted to kidnap.

Did Academia know the connection between them then? Should they ask Serena about it? Would their Fusion counterpart know more about what exactly this connection between them was? A taut rope, hanging by a thread, ready to snap at any moment and bring forth something awful?

What exactly was the secret behind their existence, when in their own worlds, they were perfectly normal people?

"I'm afraid that something will happen to the two of you," Yuya said. "Not just myself, but… the last time we all blacked out, you broke your wrist, Yuto. All of us started attacking each other, according to you, Yuno. What if the next time we black out, both of you are gone?"

They were the closest friends that he had made from other dimensions. He didn't want to lose either of them.

"You're worrying too much," Yuno said calmly. "I would never hurt you, Yuya."

"Same," Yuto said. "We are friends, after all."

Yuya stared at them, an uncomfortable feeling seizing his heart—worry, tied into that same feeling of affection.

He wondered if he would feel the same way around the others with the same face as them. There was a unique feeling to this—while Yuzu was his best friend, would always be his best friend, there was something unique to the friendship that he shared with these two, a friendship that he had settled in so easily. Something almost sibling-like.

He hoped that was true.

It might be war—but he didn't want to lose people that he cared for.

And also, all the more reason to find Yuzu soon.

(Again, he wondered if he would feel the same way with the other three—if there was something about them that would fit together. He wasn't sure if he wanted that to be true. If he had to fight his Fusion or Ritual counterpart while feeling this way about them, he wasn't sure what he would think.)


A few hours later (or what was supposed to be an entirely separate chapter but let's ignore that):

"Serena!"

Kurosaki was trapped in solitary confinement and unable to get out, but Serena had been allowed to come to join them for lunch. Apparently, the section of the Facility that she was in was intended to keep its prisoners safe from the other prisoners, which led to questions about why Serena was the only one isolated. Maybe because she was so confrontational?

(Maybe there was a higher-up in Synchro that had ordered it. Maybe Academia had already infiltrated the Synchro Dimension.)

Even so, Yuno was glad to see Serena—he had been mildly worried about her, not just because she looked like Miharu but because the girl was genuinely a little unused to other people and operating in society.

They were all eating, and since this was one of the only times that they had to eat and drink, everyone was eating quickly. However, Yuya spoke up at that moment, looking directly at Serena.

"Serena," Yuya said. "What's… uh, what's Yuri like?" Yuno blinked—he'd learned the name of the guy through Yuji, but he hadn't expected Yuya to know it. Maybe he'd heard it through someone else.

Serena's face was filled with something complicated.

"Yuri…" She shook her head. "Yuri was my first real friend… my best friend, for a very long time." For a girl that was usually so reckless and blunt with her words, there was something gentler to her gaze now. "I met him for the first time after the Professor adopted me and took me to Academia. He was a ward at Academia."

"Huh? There was a war going on in your dimension, right?"

"Yes." Serena folded her arms, leaning on the table. "You have to understand that this was an open secret back in Academia. Everyone knew about it in the Fusion Dimension, but no one ever brought it up directly. When I first found out, it wasn't from him, it was from his student file, because he would've never have talked about it himself." She took a deep breath. "... during the end of the war, Yuri's father and brother were killed right in front of him. His father was a profiteer of war—someone who sold cards and weapons to the Outer Islands. His brother was trying to advocate for them to stop—he was a very talented duelist, and then, the two of them were killed. Yuri was taken in by Academia, but… mentally, I don't think he's ever recovered."

She rubbed the back of her head.

"Uh, I guess I got off topic? Yuri loves dueling a lot. He says that dueling and being in danger is the only thing that makes him feel alive."

"... that sounds sad," Kyorin said. "Wasn't there anyone there for him? I know that you two were friends, but surely there had to be someone there…"

"I think that he and Gitsune had a bit of a friendship too," Serena said after a moment. "But he hurt her, and after that, he started distancing himself."

There was a pause.

"I miss him," Serena admitted wistfully. "He's not exactly the same as he was back when we were friends, but it feels like there's something missing when he's not there… but I don't know if he feels the same."

"He does."

"He would."

"Of course."

Yuto, Yuno and Yuya glanced at each other—all of them knowing for sure that they would never have let their best-friend-slash-girlfriend go, if they were Yuri, and heavily judging him for it—but feeling that need to affirm her, at the same time.

Serena looked between them. "Well, if that's the case, then he needs to say it himself," she said, and if there was something bitter to it, no one commented on it.

(Dennis, the one person there who could actually answer that, would say emphatically that yes, Yuri constantly threw wistful looks Serena's way when he thought no one was looking. It was a pretty hilarious part of working with him, considering how at odds it was with Yuri's general personality. However, obviously, he couldn't say it.)


In another world:

Back in the Fusion Dimension, Yuji frowned, having asked Shino the same question that Yuya had asked Serena.

"People don't fear Yuri just because he's strong, though that's certainly a part of it," Shino said with a laugh. "Remember what I told you about Domino City?"

"Domino City armed the Outer Islands during the war," Yuji said. It felt odd to refer to the city here as Domino City, since his homeland was also called Domino City, and the two cities were nothing alike. "Why does that matter? Was he an orphaned child of the war like you?"

Shino sighed, though she still had an understanding smile on her face. Yuji thought back to what she had said when he had asked her about Yuri.

"I'm surprised that you want to know, though it's a pleasant thought!"

"Yuri's a lot more important than me," Shino said, drumming her fingers on her thigh. "After all, Yuri's father was the one who armed all of the Outer Islands with all their weapons in the first place, before the people rebelled against him and slaughtered both him and his elder son—Yuri's older brother. He's here not just because he's an orphan, but for political asylum, because he's the only one of his family left alive, and if he ever goes to the Outer Islands, they'll all skin him alive."

"His family name…" Shino hadn't directly said the name, but Yuji was somewhat curious about it. He had just assumed that Yuri was an orphan that didn't know his family, but... that was rather tragic, all things considered.

Shino chuckled. "I hope you don't mind me not saying it—in our world, that name is like poison. I can't say that it doesn't affect me a little." She took out a tablet, scrolling through a few pages. "Do you have an older brother, Yuji-kun?"

"... I have a guardian," Yuji said.

"Would he be worried about you?"

"Yes," Yuji said without any hesitation. "He's a good person."

Shino's eyes seemed to twinkle. "Unlike you?"

Yuji nodded.

"Very well then! I do say, Yuji-kun, that in the end, these problems are larger than you. And besides, soon enough, they won't be your problem."

Yuji glanced at her sharply.

"Just a few weeks more," Shino said idly. "You can wait that long, right?"

Yuji nodded.

"Good." Shino shrugged. "I'm about to head to the Tower. Any words for her?"

Yuji fled immediately. It was a strategic retreat. He did not run like a coward.

(He totally did. Shino nearly laughed, if it wasn't so sad.)

Well.

Time for the next half of her visit.


"Have you looked at the deck that I gave you?"

Chiaki Katsuya glared at Shino. Shino cracked a cute smile. They were seated in a room below the tower—Shino had requested a chance to talk to Chiaki, under the pretext of trying to get the red-haired girl to behave. Considering that Chiaki had broken a frankly unholy amount of Academia's furniture and windows at this point, the Professor had approved her request.

"No," Chiaki said, after searing several holes into Shino with her glare. "I haven't."

"So you have! Alright, good to know."

Chiaki frowned. Shino simply kept on smiling. She had too much experience with wrangling stubborn teenagers at this point, after all.

"I want my old deck back," Chiaki said.

"And I already told you, it was stolen from Academia's evidence locker." By one Asuka Tenjoin, who had wanted to keep her friend's deck out of Academia's hands, though Shino wasn't going to share that—it would only make Chiaki feel worse. "If you escape but you don't have a deck, how are you going to come back and destroy us?"

"... you are so fucking amicable," Chiaki said, rubbing her forehead. "I can't handle you."

"I've been told that's a common feeling!" Shino giggled, leaning back. "But aren't I making sense, Chiaki-chan? I thought that deck fit you too. You could even splash in your old cards once you get them back. I thought of everything here."

"You put Fusion in that deck," Chiaki practically snarled, and Shino shrugged.

"Sure did! Power is power, Chiaki-chan. No matter what form it comes in."

"Says the person whose deck sabotages all other Summoning Methods?"

Shino laughed. "You have fangs, don't you? People don't normally try to insult me."

"Why not?"

"Well, either they feel bad because I'm disabled or they're intimidated because I'm skilled. Either way, it's hard for me to get a perfectly even fight!" Shino looked at Chiaki, before she sighed and rolled backwards. "We're not going to get anywhere, huh? You're too confrontational." She reached into a box at the side of the door, sliding a duel disk across the ground. "You want to beat the shit out of Yuri, but sorry, I can't grant you that wish."

"You sure?"

"He may respect me, but even I couldn't get him to stand still for you to punch him. And he's like a stubborn little brother to me, so I wouldn't let him do that anyway." Shino gestured to the duel disk. "Come on, Chiaki-chan. You wouldn't go anywhere defenceless, so you do have that deck with you now, right?"

"... I hate you," Chiaki said, and Shino laughed, nodding.

"I know, I know, firespark." She folded her arms. "Duel me. Or are you afraid that you can't match up? After all, the last time that you dueled, you lost horribly to Yuri."

Chiaki didn't even flinch. "I lost," she said. "I know I did."

She took a deep breath.

"You're going to need to teach me how to use Fusion Summoning."

"Of course, Chiaki-chan," Shino said with a laugh.


After Chiaki was sent back, Shino left the room, before she laughed as she made eye contact with Ryo, who was standing there with an unimpressed look.

"The prisoner isn't supposed to get her deck back," Ryo said, unimpressed.

"I didn't give her back her deck!" Shino chirped. After all, it was an entirely new deck. She tilted her head. "Are you going to tell on me, Ryo-kun?"

There was a certain level of tension between them—a challenge. Are you going to report me? Her gaze seemed to say.

Ryo sighed. "I'll help you get back to your room," he said.

Shino winked. "Much appreciated."


"She gave you a deck?" Ruri looked surprised. Rin looked suspicious, clearly not trusting the intentions of their benefactor—and yes, Chiaki completely agreed with that point of view.

"She gave me a deck and a warning," Chiaki said. She sat back on the bed. "... she told me that originally, Academia wanted to brainwash us."

Both Rin and Ruri stared at her in dismay.

"There was this really creepy bug? And Academia was going to put them in our heads—" Ruri cringed, and Rin gently patted her shoulder. "And try to use us to fight the people that we care for."

"How can they do something like that?" Rin said demandingly, seeming furious with their circumstances.

Chiaki agreed. "They're assholes," she muttered. "The reason why the plan was stopped was because Yuji destroyed all the bugs and the prototypes, but they've been developing them again under high security." It still hurt her a little to say Yuji's name, though she didn't let it show. "She says that they might try to do it again soon."

"I won't!" Ruri shook her head. "I won't fight my brother, I won't fight Yuto or any of my comrades…"

"Yeah." Chiaki retreated slightly further within the room, against the wall.

The idea that Yuji had destroyed the bugs to protect her, even when there were so many eyes on him…

It was normal. It was exactly the kind of extreme that they would go to for each other.

I promise, Yuji…

I will fight too. Just a little longer. And then we will destroy everyone and anyone that has ever tried to use you.


End Notes:

This duel was less of a duel and more of absolute psychological horror. I love it. Sergey is just such an innately creepy character, so I was very happy to exacerbate his creepiness—both in his interactions with others, such as Kaname, and in that chase scene with Yuya. I despise him as a character, but he's also very useful. In the end, while Sawatari and Serena didn't enable each other's recklessness this time around, they were still tracked down, even if it took longer—i.e. a two day gap between DSS and YM's arrest and theirs, as opposed to one day in canon.

Me halfway through the reunion scene: "Fuck, Yuno and Yuto are just Yuya's older brothers in this scene." That spawned a bit of distraction for me in envisioning a manga AU with Yuji and Yuno also present, but we won't elaborate on that too much, though it also spawned an omake. Also yes, there is no 'I gave my cards away to help someone else' scene here, because there was no one else in their cell.

Every time I blink, Shino adopts another person in this story as a kinda-sibling, lmao. We have Sora, Yuri, Yuji and Chiaki now.

Alright, next chapter will be back to the usual duels. I just needed a bit of a reprieve.

Also, irrelevant to this chapter, but the official names of the new Traptrix cards are out! Hell yeah! Also, since I didn't address it in last chapter, did they really make an overpowered archetype with a SS3 nuke from the GY and make it Hungry Burger support. _ Konami wtf.

Review responses:

To naminexriku2468, I intend to make Crow, Shinji, etc make sense and not be as dumb, yes, though I'll like to point out that the Friendship Cup matchups are somewhat going to be swapped up, so Yuya may not face Crow at all. I do intend to use Rua/Ruka for a cameo, though the Duel Monster Spirit World won't play a large role in this story, purely because I don't want to overcomplicate the plot.

To phantomdragons, thanks for the sweet review! Yeah, Sergey is going to get creepier in this arc. There was no logical way I could make him relatable/more human, so I just decided to embrace his monstrousness.

To DSpaceZ, yeah, the wording kind of messed with me a bit. I will probably treat it as though Reira can use it either way, but for now, let's just assume that she was styling on him, lmao. My headcanon for CCC is Cursed Captive Caricature, purely because I like the name. I don't know if I'm using it in the story though, it's just kinda trivia. I won't talk about how I'm handling the end of the story, but I hope to impress!

To Jason, the five is inclusive of the other counterpart that's mentioned in the summary. I don't particularly ship Zarc and Ray either, but I think it's a nice headcanon. I think a lot of people like the idea of destiny and them falling in love through reincarnation, which is a pretty valid romantic concept.

To T.V.2000, I think we all agree that Reira's deck concept is really cool. Thanks for the review.

Alright, thank you to all for your reviews! To those whose reviews I didn't reply to directly, either it's a spoiler or it overlaps with another review.

Feel free to drop a review! It'll make my day. :)