Shing enters the house and finds Kari cleaning while Hare is on the phone, most likely talking with the funeral home. Not saying a word, she makes her way upstairs to Yuma's room to see Astral sitting on the hammock watching Esper Star Sparrow with a sad look in his eyes. She supposes he would watch this show with Yuma all the time.
She clears her throat. Astral's ears twitch but he only grunts in response. "Astral do you really trust me with this?' She asks quietly.
Astral sighs and tears his gaze away from the screen. "It's not that I don't trust you. I'm just… I'm unwilling to part with it. It reminds me so much of Yuma and his free spirit. I didn't…" He trails off, but Shing catches the way his voice chokes. His expression is sorrowful; he is most likely holding back tears. Somewhere in another room. Dark groans loudly in annoyance.
She carefully sits on the hammock with him. "I'm glad you could trust me with this, Astral." She hugs him with one arm and watches the show with him. "I'll keep Yuma's memory alive and help you with your mission. I promise."
Astral lets the tears run freely down his face, he nods in response and hugs her back.
~.~.~
"Now your field is empty! I attack your life points directly!" Shing cries out, and her monster obeys. With no monster, trap or spell cards for his line of defense, the man possessed by a Number card flies back as his life points drop all the way down to zero.
Astral, who is silently watching since she could obviously take care of herself, unfolds his arms and reaches his hand out to summon the Number to him. He takes the Number into himself, absorbing the memory as he's done so with Yuma countless times before now.
This is the third time he and Shing are out dueling to retrieve the Numbers, and While Astral is grateful to her for doing this for him, but it just isn't the same. That isn't to say he doesn't like having Shing around. It's only been a few days, but he's grown attached to her already. Maybe that is due to the key binding them together, but he liked her company. In many ways, she's a lot like Yuma was. She's energetic while dueling, she goes with the flow no matter where it takes her, and she's made comebacks even Yuma wouldn't have been able to pull off without Astral's help.
"Thank you Shing," Astral says when he absorbs the memory. "I appreciate your help."
Shing puts her cards and duel disk away with a small smile. "I'm happy to help. It's what Yuma would have wanted."
Astral nods with a smile as well. The mention of his friend's name still hurt, but being with this girl made it easier to cope with the pain in his chest. "I'm sure he's happy watching us from whatever he is."
Shing's eyes well with tears, but she wipes them away. She's down with crying for now, they both are. Of course, they would be crying during the funeral, but that would be then. Shing has her life thanks to Yuma. She won't waste it. She silently promises him that.
"I'm beat. That duel was tough," Shing sighs. "Let's go back home."
"Very well. I need to take care of this Number anyway." Astral disappears into the key to store the Number he gained to where it is suppose to be.
She walks along in silence until Astral comes back out. That is when they spoke in low tones. They stayed off the topic of Yuma though, and instead talked about Shing's kingdom. It helped to pass the time while they made their way back home while staying away from the topic of the funeral. It is just around the corner, one week away. Every time they think about it, they get together and just cry even though they promised they wouldn't anymore. Keeping things bottled up wouldn't help.
When they finally arrive home, they find Tori had come over to help Kari and Haru through this trying time, they seem better than before. As usual, the green haired girl gives Shing an odd look, but there is no malice to it. Still, instead of hanging around, Astral and Shing head up to Yuma's attic room to simply sit in silence as usual, to mourn and calm down from the duel.
In the room below, a portal opens. The spellcaster versions of Astral and Dark Mist enter the room, sent to keep an eye on the queen of their world. Yuri is the one who spots and approaches them. Both spellcasters bow when they see him.
"How are things in the city?" He asks them before he reaches them.
"Well Vector's not liking his position as regent, that's for sure," Dark Mist replies. "But he's doing his best, and so is Vegeta. The place hasn't fallen apart yet."
"Good." Yuri runs his fingers through his hair, a hand on his hip. "Shing wants to wait until the funeral is over. She'll come back to us when it's over."
Both spellcasters share a glance and smile. "She will?" Astral asks hopefully. "That's good to hear. How far away is the funeral?"
"A week from now, it shouldn't take too long."
"We'll continue to study the curse then. We've learned more, but not that much more. We still have a long way to go."
"Keep at it then. I'm sure Shing will be happy at your return."
"Where is she now?"
"In the room above us with the Astral of this world. They're having a moment alone right now. She'll be done in half an hour."
"That's fine," Dark Mist adds. "We can study the curse in the meantime and come up with something to prevent it from happening again."
Yuri nods and goes on his way. The spellcasters sit together on the bed, opening the now black book, and begin reading up on the curse. Every once in a while, the book turns blue so they can research a prevention spell, but the book remains black for most of the time.
