Work Text:
It was a strange feeling.
Ruri couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her soul felt like it finally found where it belonged. It was like an blanket of peace inside of Yuzu. It cradled her like she was a baby, untainted by the world. But the truth was far from it, she wasn't a pure soul. She had grown up through experiences that didn't belong to Ray, or the other bracelet girls. She couldn't fully meld with the others to become Ray. It was too late.
She was Ruri. She'd always be Ruri.
She couldn't be fully satisfied because there were tons of connections she had made as Ruri. She had left her home, her family, all on their own. She was no longer Ray, no matter how well her soul fit with the others.
Ruri was sure this was the case for Yuzu, Serena, and Rin.
"Is that why…?" She murmured to herself as she gazed upon the lines of her palms again. She squeezed experimentally, trying to see if this was reality and not a dream that her soul cooked up.
The ends of her fingertips were tingly. They acted like they had fallen asleep. But that alone was enough for her confirm that she had control of her own body. She wasn't sharing it with the others, or with some dumb parasite. This was new, or well not new, but it was a nice change of pace.
After confirming her body, she looked at her surroundings for a clue.
It was peaceful, just as peaceful as being inside Yuzu, but unlike the ephemeral space her soul resided, she was assaulted by sensation that she didn't think she'd experience again. She could feel her feet crushing the grass. Each blade, bending underneath her shoes as she walked towards the shallow river. Her ears picked up the birds chirp a tune against the whistling wind, accompanied by the rushing waters. She walked forward to the river to see her purple-pink hair, tied in a loose ponytail, and her winged earrings dangling in the spring breeze.
She was herself again.
"Hello, Ruri? Ruri? Are you in there?" asked a pretty, peppy, green-haired girl that shared her face. She bounced in front of Ruri's sight. Her form fitting jumpsuit stood out against the classic visual novel backdrop. She had a presence of sci-fi character in a contemporary Japanese school setting. It was out of place, but she was a welcomed face for Ruri.
The girl waved her hand in front of Ruri's face, even though she could see that Ruri was looking straight at her.
"Rin?" Ruri asked grabbing her hands to check. They were warm, as warm as the smile she had on. Even though they shared a face, it didn't feel like they were looking in a mirror.
Even though they had shared a body together, Ruri missed her.
"Yeah, it's me," Rin said, squeezing back. It was a simple sentence, but it meant so much to them. They had their identities blurred for the sake of uniting as Ray, as Yuzu. There was a comfort in holding each other's hands. It was a grounding element to scream out… "Hey we're here. We exist."
They silently appreciated the moment they shared. It was something that only a few people could understand.
Some of which, they craved so desperately to see again.
"Where do you think we are?" Rin asked, breaking the silence before either of them started to tear up at the sentimental atmosphere brewing between them.
They looked around. There were plenty of people dueling left and right, but they weren't dueling for their lives or seemed to fear the threat of the Academia. There was no sudden interruptions from a third party or any stakes at play other than the sheer pride of winning. It was a place full of smiles.
It was the world that Yuya had strove to have.
It comforted them, but then they noticed the oddities.
At a glance, it would seem like a normal city, but she could see the slick, aero dynamic domes collide with the angled brutalism of skyscrapers. They were literally colliding, like the architects had designed for them to intersect in impractical ways, windows melting into others in some weirdly generative way. It wasn't the natural evolution of a city that went from generation-to-generation. Each building's construction felt like it was patched worked together with different architectural intentions, like they were fused to make one surreal painting of their society.
It was unnerving, because they didn't understand it. But, they wanted to believe in the smiles they say on the duelists.
"…Did the different dimensions merge?" Ruri asked after brushing the pink strands of hair from her eyes. She vaguely felt that it had when she was fused with Yuzu, but her memories were fuzzy. She only had an impression that this was a future that Yuya wanted for them, a world where dueling brought smiles.
"I don't know." How would Rin know any different? Not too long ago they were in the same position. But, Rin did notice something that Ruri didn't. She pointed upwards at the sky and said, "I don't think any of our homes had those"
There wasn't anything particularly strange about it, until they spent more than a minute gazing at it. The clouds that drifted by had artifacts of pixels, fading in and out as they rolled in a straight line. The sun seemed to move too fast. The fact that they've noticed meant that it was.
Their day went quickly from high noon to afternoon to evening. The street lights all flicked on at the same time to signal that this was normal for here, even though it threw off their sense of time. Not a single person bat an eye to this, they just kept dueling.
"Are we in some game?" Ruri asked, looking around for something else that would signify that, but she could feel the wind blowing through her hair. She could hear the blaring shouts of someone yelling out the typical, "I place two face downs and end my turn." Everything felt so real.
But, solid vision also felt very real at times. The Duel Monster game seem to make the impossible possible. Maybe Ruri just needed to keep her mind open.
After all, she knew whole dimensions could be formed from the will of duelists and their cards. So, a whole digital one was possible as well.
Even if this reality was fake, it was real to her now and that was what mattered. She had to figure out how to navigate it and how to find the people important to her. If they were even here…
"Do you think we're the only ones here?" Rin asked, looking among the faces for someone familiar. "It doesn't feel like it."
"You feel it too?" Ruri asked, even though that it should be obvious that they would be in sync after all this time. "Someone is looking for us."
"Yeah, I can't shake it. I can practically hear his voice shouting for me," Rin responded. "If we're separated from Yuzu… you think that the others?"
"I hope so," Ruri said, finally understanding what was nagging her. She still had more questions than answers, but she wasn't going to get any of them by standing still. "Rin, let's go-"
Ruri paused. She understood what Rin was thinking, what she was feeling. It was like they were still fused together. It was hard for them to describe. But, the roar of engines in the distance made it so very clear.
"You want to go towards the sound of those D-wheels… don't you?" Ruri asked, even though she didn't need to. Rin's eyes were hyper-fixated on the direction of the purring rumble. "Let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way."
"Are you sure? I'll be leaving you all alone," Rin said, furrowing her brows. She rubbed her arm, feeling antsy staying in one place when she could be moving. It might be a habit among turbo duelists. "We should look for your brother. Yugo can take care of himself… from what I understand of your brother, he'd die from worry."
"I'm sure, besides… the bonds between us… They wouldn't be broken by some distance," Ruri said with the gentle smile that she was known for. "I'm sure we'll find each other without trying."
Rin pulled Ruri into a hug suddenly, squeezing her close. They stood there for moments, because the next they would be exploring this strange place, without knowing whether it was a safe place to be or not. Both of them knew how quickly a place could suddenly become a war zone.
"If I find Yugo, I'll drag him kicking and screaming in your direction. You'll definitely know we're coming," Rin said before letting her counterpart go. She ran off before Ruri could get a word in. The XYZ girl only waved her off awkwardly.
Ruri wished she had the energy that Rin had, but she supposed that was why they felt more complete when they were together. She sighed.
Once Ruri had moved from that strange nexus of ideas, she started to find a location that was a lot more coherent. In this section of the world, there were more people shouting out overlays for their XYZ summoning and the buildings had their organic curved shape without the straight lined skyscrapers of Rin's city.
It felt more like the Heartland that she knew, but… a little different.
It was colorful, like she remembered, but louder, livelier. It was like the world was painted in a slightly different value and hue. It wasn't just the people or the buildings. There were bots going around, cleaning trashcans and the streets. They zoomed passed people on sidewalks and everyone paid them no mind.
Ruri jumped as one of the bots spit out a can out of it and gestured for her to take it. She grabbed it apprehensively, feeling the cool aluminum. She held it up to look at it better.
"If you're not going to drink that, can I have it?" asked a random kid.
"Oh, oh sure," Ruri said, putting the can into the boy's hand. He pulled the tab and thanked her before chugging the fizzy drink as he went his way.
Oh, that bot must have been a vending machine.
Ruri had to wonder if it would quench anything since it seemed like they weren't in reality, but then again, everything felt so real and detailed. It felt there was something more here than a fabricated world. She found herself getting lost in the details.
Some kids with visors yelling out their moves in the middle of the street. Not a single trace of the solid vision that Ruri had gotten used to seeing. Plus, when she listened in closer, they were playing by a whole different rule set. There was no main phase 2. There were only 3 main monster zones and an odd space in the center between the duelist's playing field where they'd place their fusion, XYZ, or… linked?
What was link summoning? Was that a new summoning technique, like pendulum? Was pendulum even good to use in a rule set that only had 3 back row slots?
It was exciting, but overwhelming.
Unknowns is what made duel monsters a fun game, but when you life is on the line, it was also scary.
Ruri was enraptured by the sights that by the time she wandered this far, the sun had set and the system had imprinted the illusion of the night sky above her. It felt so artificial. Ruri could see the stars among the colorful, neon lighting of the city spotlights. In reality, the light pollution would have drown out the stars, but she could see the whole milky way, like a painter that wanted to depict the city as a magical place where dreams could come true.
To obtain the same sights, she had to go with Shun and Yuto to a remote hill, but here it was on display on demand and she learned that no one else bat an eye at the oddities. No one seemed to care about anything outside of a game. She had known someone like that, but she hoped not to run into him instead of Yuto.
He was the only Yu boy that could get her skin crawling by his smile.
"This world… is weird," she murmured, dazed by the onslaught of information. Maybe she should have stayed with Rin after all, as she realize that running into Yuri was a possibility. Although she was shoulder to shoulder with other people on the sidewalk, she felt alone. And facing an enemy alone was terrifying.
A boy, shorter than her, bumped shoulders with her and she immediately said, "Sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."
"It's alright," the boy said energetically. He was about to speed off, but he paused to say, "You look lost."
Shouldn't it be a question? Was it that obvious?
"…Yeah, I guess I am," Ruri said. She hoped her sadness wasn't shining through her polite smile. "Sorta new here."
"Sorta? Say, you're really new to Duel Links, huh?" he said. He outstretched his hand out to her, in a friendly platonic way. "I'll show you around until you find something familiar! This place is practically my second home now. When I first arrived, it was difficult to adjust so I want to help you out."
"Sure," Ruri said as she grabbed his hand. She felt Shun would lecture her about taking a stranger's hand, but she could use the company. Besides, she already learned more some this boy than she had wandering around. This place was called Duel Links, huh? And it was normal for people to just… suddenly appear?
So many questions, but Ruri didn't ask any of them. Instead she warmly said, "Show me around your second home."
"Yeah! You really waste no time. You know how to kattobing as well," he exclaimed with a big grin.
"Cat…to bing?" Ruri asked, tilting her head. It didn't sound like a word. Was it something that younger people said? This boy looked like he belonged in middle school.
"Kattobing! It means to challenge," the boy said, showing his arm like he had muscles to show off. "I kattobing everyday. After all, how can you learn if you're afraid of failing.
The world that Ruri was from, failing meant you couldn't get back up again. But, somehow Yuma didn't feel ignorant of those life-or-death duels. He felt like a man that throws his whole weight into whatever he tackled and that included duels.
"Yeah, I guess I like to kattobing," Ruri said with a nod. There was no reason to doubt the boy's words. He seemed too pure of a kid to lie to her.
Yuma smiled because he was used to others calling it stupid or inane. He really liked— "Ah! You're right. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Yuma, you?"
"Ruri," she replied.
There was something about this kid that reminded her of the charisma that Yuto seemed to have, although their energies were on complete different levels. She had a gut feeling that she was in good hands.
Yuma gave Ruri the basic run down of what things were like in Duel Links. At least, from his perspective, which was still vague, but more than what Ruri knew before. All the while, they visited the various food stands that existed in front of the Duel Studio.
"So you like go around hunting… numbers?" Ruri asked, trying to understand Yuma's point. She didn't know what these numbers were about, but they seemed like special cards. "Because you lost them when you came into this… game?"
She had an inkling, but it felt surreal to here it confirmed. Especially when she had a skewer full of candied strawberries in her hand. When she bit into it, the texture of the sugar with the juiciness of the fruit felt so real. Maybe the fact that it was perfect was what made it unrealistic. An occasional hit of a sour berry might be missing in the sea of sweet lies.
"Yeah, it was so strange. The game seem to expand with our memories," Yuma said as he tapped his head. "Like I'll suddenly remember someone important to me, and they've arrived in the game. Or whole group of people with their own cities and worlds join and I meet cards that I've never seen before."
Yuma outstretched his arms to emphasize the vastness.
"There's a reason that I've forgotten and lost the numbers," Yuma said, crossing his arms. He shrugged. "But as long as I have my partner, Astral. It's not hopeless. I'm sure I'll remember everything one day. If anything, we're more in sync than before, because I'm also fighting for pieces of my memories."
Although, it felt like he was doing more reliving the events than remembering the events, but he had to blame the developers of the game. Which was? Kaiba Corp?
Yuma didn't quite understand how that was possible. Kaiba Corp was just word in history to him. Not corporation that lived to his time. But, duel monsters had aliens warring with each other. It was fair to believe that there were some time shenanigans in Duel Links.
Meanwhile, Ruri was surprised it wasn't the Akabas that created this. They seemed to know how everything worked together. And since Ruri could remember them. They must exist here.
Ruri furrowed her eyebrows. Has she forgotten anything? Anyone? It would be hard for her to verify until the day she randomly remember someone important to her. Her eyes widened as she turned to face Yuma.
"Does that mean… if I remember them, then they are somewhere out there?" Ruri asked, piecing the things together. "Does that mean Yuto and my brother are here?"
"I've never heard of them," Yuma said, making Ruri's heart drop in disappointment, but he lifted it with a excited, "But they should be."
"There you go again, being overly optimistic," the purple haired man said with his hands in his pockets. "There are a few people we remember that aren't here yet."
"Oh, right," Yuma said rubbing the back of his head. He gestured to his friend. "Shark's sister isn't here yet, but we're hopeful that she'll come soon."
"She will, she's a good duelist," Shark said as he looked at Ruri. "I assume your brother and friend are duelists as well."
"They are. One of the best ones I know," Ruri answered quickly. She was unsure with many things lately, but not that.
Shark grinned at the confidence and decided to give a helpful tip, "Then you'll see them again one day, but if you want the day to come sooner… The building and places are also taken from our memories, so if you have an idea where they'd be. Somewhere that's important to the both of you."
"Heartland. They would be waiting for me there," she responded with conviction in her voice. "It's our home."
"That's our home too," Yuma said, surprising Ruri. He looked at Shark, waiting for him to back him up.
"But…" Ruri furrowed her eyebrows. She had never heard about the numbers before and Yuma didn't seem to know about the invasion of Heartland. As they went through the streets, trying food and browsing the card shops, there was no mention of Duel Academia. …Could there be two Heartlands? Or did she fall into an alternative dimension, or timeline?
Or was she talking to a person and not a computer program? Was she a computer program?
"Kaito… also talked about something similar to this before," Shark murmured. His words saving her from the sudden existential crisis.
"Kaito… Tenjo?" Ruri asked, unsure if it was the same Kaito from her memories. But she felt encouraged by Yuma and Shark's shocked expressions. They knew that name. "He competed with my brother a lot."
"Your brother's name?" Shark asked raising his eyebrow. He would know any skilled duelist in Heartland as he competed in a couple of competitions himself.
"Shun… Shun Kurosaki," Ruri said. She leaned forward with her hands clenched in anticipation. Yuma mirrored it on his end. "Do you know of him?"
Shark shook his head, instantly crushing Yuma's and Ruri's hope.
"But you should ask him yourself," Shark said, wanting to chuckle at how in sync that the two were. "He's mentioned remembering a Heartland where he wasn't a Number Hunter, but I always thought he meant before the numbers were scattered, but maybe it relates to your brother."
"A whole other Heartland, with whole other XYZ cards?" Yuma asked, excitedly. The idea made his heart pound. It wasn't something he was rediscovering. It was something new, new. "I want to find it!"
"Come on. Maybe we'll find it or spot him if we go to the tippy-top of the Ferris wheel," Yuma suggested, pointing at the attraction from where they were standing. Ruri had to run with how fast he was pulling her.
She looked back at Shark that simple waved at them.
"Yeah," Ruri responded, happy she was focusing on the moment and not lingering in the dark parts of her mind. She felt that Yuma complimented the trepidation
Just like the lights of the city and the sky, Yuma shone brightly to her.
Yuma marveled at the sights like he hadn't been up there before, making Ruri laugh.
"Did you just want an excuse to go up here?" Ruri teased, and laughed more when Yuma firmly denied the notion. She guessed, even if Yuma was up for challenging anything, a few things didn't feel right to do alone. She looked at the view and gently sighed. "This is definitely not the Heartland that I know, but I don't recognize the cities that connect to here, either."
They all had their distinct personalities to them and at each border there was a large circle that floated in the air. Were they portals?
"How's your Heartland?" Yuma asked, snapping her out of her inner musing yet again.
Ruri's smile faltered a bit.
She recalled the broken skyline and the dust of the rubble that came after the fateful attack, but if this world was shaped from their memories then she thought back to how it was. It would be nicer if it was recreated from the good instead of the bad.
"It was peaceful place," Ruri said with he hand over her chest. "I spent my days with Yuto and my brother, playing and watching duels. There's a big stadium that would host pro-dueling every season, and my brother would fight all of the scalpers to get the three of us the best seats we could afford."
Ruri smiled brightly. It wasn't the polite or reserve smile she's been sporting all day. It was the happiest she felt all day.
"It wasn't that close, or in the best angle, but it didn't need to be. You could feel the energy from the whole crowd. Everything was so bright, so loud," Ruri continue. She closed her eyes, trying to picture the stage before here and remember the scent of buttery popcorn. "And at the end, the sky would be lit up with fireworks."
Yuma patiently let her recall that treasured memory before saying, "It doesn't sound like our Heartlands are that different. We have all of that right here, but… there is something that we are missing."
"What?" Ruri asked, opening her eyes to see Yuma look more mature than his age.
"It's something that I'm missing too," Yuma said. He knew what it was like to feel alone in the world, because family was missing. All of this was fun, but he found himself missing his grandma and his sister. All the candied sweets and soda in the world couldn't replace those round rice balls. He looked at Ruri and said, "You're just missing your family. They're your home."
Ruri blushed darkly at the mention of Yuto being her family. She knew that would send Shun into a frenzy if he knew. But, Yuma wasn't far off. The three of them did everything together and it felt so painful to be separated from them.
"Yeah, I guess my home is them," Ruri admitted. It wasn't hard to, but she needed to. It made her feel better. "It feels lonely without them by my side and I've been without them for so long now."
If they were together, they could make any weird place into their home.
"Then, you don't need to find your heartland," Yuma said like he had everything all figured out. "The people is more important than the place."
He looked off to the side, as if something was talking to him that Ruri couldn't see, before turning his head to Ruri, "Astral said, maybe we'll find them at the stadium. If that's your fondest memories of them, then you'll find them there. And if your brother is as competitive as you say he is, he'd want to climb the ranks there."
"Thank you Astral," Ruri said, playing along, but she was flustered when Yuma said, "Astral's over here."
He pointed at the other side of the compartment.
In the end, the Ferris wheel was a bust, but the two came out thinking that they had made some progress. At least emotionally.
Ruri had been fixated how everything was different, that she had been scattered, letting everything push her around and away from what was truly important. It wasn't like she had forgotten them, but she was distracted, unsure, afraid of the changes. But Yuma was like a ray of light and hope that pulled Ruri out of her self-made despair.
"I think… Shark had the right idea," Yuma said, admitting that he had rush towards the more glamorous method. "We should look for Kaito and he should be able to lead us to the right place."
But he didn't have a foggiest clue, Kaito always seemed to find him, whistling a song… like the one that he could hear right now.
Yuma turned around to see Kaito glide in like the kite he sometimes was. His lips were pursed to sing a tune like he was a bird themed duelist instead of a galaxy eyes. He landed smoothly in front of them, and before Yuma could introduce them, Ruri hugged him, happy to see a familiar face.
Yuma fully expected Kaito to push her away as he was pretty cold to people, mostly to protect himself and his goals towards taking care of his brother, but he hugged her back like an old friend.
"Do you remember me?" Ruri asked, squeezing Kaito.
"…Vaguely," Kaito said. "It feels like a different lifetime… A different me."
But it didn't feel bad.
Ruri pulled away. She wiped the tears that were welling in her eyes. "It's still good to see a familiar face."
Kaito nodded and said, "I was told you're looking for Shun and Yuma? I know where they are. I'll take you there."
"Ruri, that's great!" Yuma exclaimed. "Can I go too?"
"…We should probably focus on finding numbers before you can play tourists in other gates," Kaito said sharply. He grabbed Yuma's collar before he could scuttle away. He furrowed his eyebrows, being sharper with Yuma than Ruri.
"You're not coming with me to see them?" Ruri asked.
"I have some unfinished business here… my family needs me," Kaito said as he looked away. "I think you can understand that. The me that you know also cared a lot for his family. I'll walk you to the correct gate."
Ruri could understand that and it made her comforted that this was indeed the same Kaito she knew before. Kaito was always dueling the Academia with his family in mind. She turned to Yuma and said, "I guess this is it. It was fun to go around with you and Astral. I don't know how I'll repay you."
Yuma smiled, knowing that Ruri said Astral name because she knew how important he was to him, even if she couldn't see him. "Yeah, I'll miss you. Be sure to come back sometime and duel me! That's all I need."
They nodded towards each other, wordlessly acknowledging that was the true way that duelists befriended each other.
"I'm looking forward to it."
Weeks, months, or maybe more later, it was hard to tell in this virtual reality. Ruri was with her brother and Yuto at the stadium where legendary duelists gather to test their mettle. They were going to watch some other people play through the Kaiba cup that happened every so often.
"Oh Ruri!" Yuma shouted from the stage area. He jumped up and down.
"Who is this guy?" Shun immediately said, thinking that the young boy was some admirer of his sister. He couldn't blame him. His sister was a great woman, but still! Not anyone should be able to address his sister so casually.
But, before he could complain, Ruri stood onto her feet from her seat and cupped her hands around her mouth.
"Yuma!" Ruri shouted from the stands. "It's nice to see you kattobinging!"
Was it normal to add an extra "ing" to kattobing? Ruri didn't know, but she felt that it wasn't in the spirit of the kattobing to question it. It just felt right.
Yuma made a fist and pumped it in excitement, letting Ruri know that she was overthinking things again.
"Yuma! Focus. You're dueling me," his opponent, Shark, shouted out. He glanced up at Ruri and waved briefly.
"How do you know these two?" Shun asked.
"I ran into them, when I was looking for you two," Ruri said before folding her hands onto her lap. It felt so liberating to shout that loudly.
"What's kattobinging?" Yuto asked, still stuck on the strange word instead of Ruri's new friends.
