Shun Kurosaki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
revolutionfalcon) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thenearshore2016-12-01 10:31 pm
revolutionfalcon) wrote in thenearshore2016-12-01 10:31 pm
[Closed] What happens in fight club stays in fight club...
Who: Shun and Ren
What: Card gameassholes antiheroes have a post-fighting-lesson sleepover and talk about their respective dark pasts.
When: May 20th
Where: Nekhbet's Temple
Warnings: Discussion of war and likely PTSD and survivor's guilt at some point, others will be added if they come up.
[Shun and Ren's fighting lessons have become basically routine at this point, every three days like clockwork that's only thrown out of time by the few occasions Shun has to work, in which case it's picked up the next day and the cycle continues. Not even the more brutal lesson on the fourteenth had managed to stop the following one falling in line, and now it's the one after that, and as always, Shun's demanding a rest period afterwards to be sure he doesn't send Ren back out weak enough to make easy pickings.
This time, though, is a little different, because he's not sending Ren back out, and though they discussed this extensively enough a few days ago when Ren suggested it, Shun doesn't really get what the difference between a sleepover and sharing quarters with his allies is. But there is definitely one thing they agreed on when it came to "getting to know each other better", and after coming across from the tiny kitchen with both a jug of water and a pot of the most obnoxiously strong black coffee imaginable, cups already on the little coffee table in the other room, Shun drains a glass of water in about two and a half seconds before he switches to the coffee and gives his guest a level look.]
You did better today than last lesson, but I'd be surprised if you wanted to discuss something that obvious.
What: Card game
When: May 20th
Where: Nekhbet's Temple
Warnings: Discussion of war and likely PTSD and survivor's guilt at some point, others will be added if they come up.
[Shun and Ren's fighting lessons have become basically routine at this point, every three days like clockwork that's only thrown out of time by the few occasions Shun has to work, in which case it's picked up the next day and the cycle continues. Not even the more brutal lesson on the fourteenth had managed to stop the following one falling in line, and now it's the one after that, and as always, Shun's demanding a rest period afterwards to be sure he doesn't send Ren back out weak enough to make easy pickings.
This time, though, is a little different, because he's not sending Ren back out, and though they discussed this extensively enough a few days ago when Ren suggested it, Shun doesn't really get what the difference between a sleepover and sharing quarters with his allies is. But there is definitely one thing they agreed on when it came to "getting to know each other better", and after coming across from the tiny kitchen with both a jug of water and a pot of the most obnoxiously strong black coffee imaginable, cups already on the little coffee table in the other room, Shun drains a glass of water in about two and a half seconds before he switches to the coffee and gives his guest a level look.]
You did better today than last lesson, but I'd be surprised if you wanted to discuss something that obvious.
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When Ren talks about not being able to stand having Aichi in his way, Shun's expression becomes a little closed again, another of those moments he's relating to this more than he expected to. Again, different reasons, but "in my way" had been about all it took to make an enemy of Shun not long ago.
From the look on Ren's face right now, Shun feels like there's a gap to be filled in there.]
Did he give in to it as well, or did he surpass it?
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Oh, he gave into it too, for a while. I encouraged him. I knew it would hurt Kai, and...I really liked knowing there was someone else. Not just because I felt like it proved I was right; it was just nice not being alone. And he was really something to watch while he was addicted to it.
[There is maybe a tiny part of him that's disappointed he'll never get to see or fight that Aichi again. It's better for Aichi and everyone else this way, and it's not like Aichi isn't stronger than almost anyone in his own right, but...it really had been something to see.]
Kai was strong enough by then to beat him and knock some sense into him, though. So he did surpass it eventually. And then Kai decided that because he could do that, he was strong enough to challenge me again too.
[He pauses and thoughtfully taps his chin.]
And that's about where I was when you showed up the other day.
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It's probably a good thing they passed the issue of Ren's enjoyment of certain things Shun considers a little strange the other day, though, or he'd be looking more askance at that mention of how he was to watch when addicted. As it is, Shun just lets it pass with no more than a furrow of the brow that more says he doesn't quite get that emotion.
When the story comes up again, Shun takes only a moment to remember the outline of it, and his response is almost immediate.]
Kai lost again, and Aichi fought you instead?
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[It's not really relevant to this particular conversation to mention he failed, though.]
I was really angry with both of them for rejecting me, so I did want to destroy Aichi-kun during that fight, like I said. And during the fight, I decided the best way to do that was make him become what he hated again.
I think I said in the story it didn't work but...it did, for a little while. But he decided he could accept his darkness and me, and he won.
[He pauses again and makes a slightly confused face at his coffee, because he's not actually sure where to go from that. That was the end of it and he was better after that, but it wasn't really because Aichi had reached out to him or because Kai was waiting for him. It had just...happened, really.]
And then I'm not really sure what happened. We were both using our power, so it made things weird...It felt like I was just pulled out of it. Or maybe like my anger just got pulled out of me. Suddenly I could see clearly what I'd been doing and how I'd been hurting my friends and how much more fun it had been before...it was like waking up from a bad dream because someone threw water in my face.
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Honestly, he looks just as confused as Ren about the aftermath. He supposes he can see some sense of what he means, but when it happens in his world usually it's because someone reached out and didn't let up until their message had made it through, rather than it happening through a victory pure and simple. And it's not even like it's a rare thing in his world, either.]
Maybe it was because both of you were using that power. If he could overcome it and accept it, maybe losing to it like that had an effect on you and yours. [He definitely doesn't sound sure about that, though, since he's basically spitballing here.]
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[Either or those thing sound like a perfectly reasonable possibility to him, because he really has no idea what it was. Aichi's unit had been there and done something...but that isn't much more of an explanation.]
I do think that was had something to do with it. We both lost it for a little while after that, so maybe that was it too.
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Still, a moment later, he shakes his head like he doubts he'll really get it anyway.]
You'd know better whether it could've been that power that caused it, anyway. There's always rumours and stories about powers like that in my world, card spirits and whatever, but I've never seen anything come of it.
[He doesn't sound dismissive, because he believes in his own deck as much as anyone else does and will dismantle anyone who dares to insult it, but it's hard to think of it as much more than fantasy when the closest to truth he has is a vague memory of brutality not fitting someone he now knows well enough to make that call, and the apparent existence of other kinds of spirits.]
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Because Vanguard's timeline is stupid and makes no sense.] I'd actually forgotten I'd even had it when I got it again, and even though I remember now, some of my memories are still a little fuzzy.[Yeah, that's about as helpful as he can be on that front. He'd love to have a better answer too, because then maybe he could figure out what it was that let Aichi have peace with himself, but he's thought about it enough that he's sure he won't be getting the answer any time soon.
At Shun's mention of card spirit, though, he lights right up, brighter than he has been all day much less during the last while.]
Really? In my world--well, Vanguard's lore is based around another planet, and most people don't know it, but that planet is a real place. That was what Psyqualia was supposed to be for, I think: connecting us with that planet. So if our units are real, then maybe your spirits are too.
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The idea of Vanguard's lore base actually being a real planet makes Shun look rather blank for a moment, as if in disbelief...and then he gives a slight sigh like he can't actually maintain that emotion.]
I suppose I can't really say that sounds any weirder than multiple dimensions in my world. But I've been to all the dimensions except one, and none of them have had anything like that. If they did exist, I'd be interested, but the closest we have is Real Solid Vision, and that's only realism, not actual reality. [As far as he knows.]
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But he just can't get that offer out of his throat and into the air. Maybe it's because of Shun comments about his willpower, maybe it's because reliving his experience with Psyqualia again has reminded him just how stupid it had been to give in and introduce Hibari to it in the first place....
He really would love to show Shun what Cray was like, though...
He finally shakes his head a little and smiles to try to just move on like nothing had happened.]
Maybe they're just hiding from you. Or maybe you can't notice them unless you're really looking for them, the way we are now.
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While it's a nice thought to consider that card spirits might really exist in his world, Shun doesn't look convinced.]
If it was just me they weren't showing themselves to, maybe, but I don't think that's it.
[Given Ren seems to be focusing on this now, too, Shun assumes that's the end of his story, and the more he puts his own off the more unpleasant he thinks it's likely to be telling it. So while he doesn't want to push things along too hard, he figures it's worth the question.]
Was that all you had to tell me?
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He's more than happy to move on, though, especially if it's time for Shun's turn. He does his best not too look too excited (which isn't too hard, if he's honest, because his mood is still dampened a bit from his own retelling and he knows this is something that should be treated seriously), but he does smile a little as he nods and shifts a little in his seat to get more comfortable.]
I still have a few stories, but that's the end of that one. I can tell you the other ones another time.
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Taking one more sip of his coffee before he puts it aside on the table, Shun inclines his head and begins.]
I already covered some of this the first time we met, but my world has four dimensions - Standard, Xyz, Synchro and Fusion. Most people aren't aware of the other dimensions, or weren't until recently. [As he says this, he slides his phone out of his pocket, opens something up, and then slides it down the coffee table towards Ren. There's an image on the screen, a photo of a photo, though the only real evidence of that is that there's bits of a frame barely visible at the edges of it.]
Me, Yuto and my little sister Ruri are all from the Xyz Dimension. We all went to the Spade Branch of Heartland Duel School, and though they're both a lot younger than me and had more time to think about what they wanted to do, I was already dedicating myself to being a pro duelist someday. If you don't have an equivalent in your world, call it something like a combination of an entertainer and athlete - you have to know how to draw the audience, and have the physical skill to pull off stunts with your monsters to do it, as well as the skill at the game to win while keeping things interesting. Until two years ago, that's what I'd focused myself on.
[And that's about the point his tone goes from detached to bitter.] We didn't know about the other dimensions. We were at peace. And on a day we never saw coming, the Fusion Dimension invaded us. Heartland was burned and razed to the ground, and they hunted us like animals. We'd never seen what they did to their victims before, but anyone who lost to them or couldn't fight was sealed, body and soul, into a card. Just on the first day, most of the city was as good as dead, and they never stopped the hunt. They laughed as they cut us down, civilians desperately trying to form a defense, they compared their kills like a game. To them, it was a game.
To us, it was the start of a living hell for the next two years.
[It may be becoming more obvious why Shun prompted Ren to go first. Even with this time to prepare, Shun's tone is somewhere between bitterness and strangled emotion.]
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The change in Shun's tone bring him back from his half-listening, half-musing state, although he keep his eyes down at the phone in his lap for now, not really seeing it as he tries to see the scene Shun is describing instead. It's more familiar than Shun would probably guess, and he makes a mental note not to get too playful if he ever tells Shun about the Link Joker invasion.
That had only lasted a few days, though, and the main invasion had only been for a few hours. If that had lasted for years...]
We have pro fighters too. I get asked a lot if I'm going to go pro after I graduate, even though I already have Foo Fighter...
[And two National Championships and the last High School Championship...he's about as close to being a pro as he can get without it being official.
He carefully sets Shun's phone back on the table, folds his hands in his lap where he can keep them to himself, and finally looks up at Shun. Even just that little bit to start with already explains a lot about him.]
You're still here, so you must have found a way to fight back.
[It obviously wasn't as easy as all that, though.]
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For a while, we couldn't, because we had no idea how. But finally, we got hold of Academia's technology and reverse-engineered it. We gained the level of power their Real Solid Vision had, and we gained the capability to seal people into cards as well. That was also when we found out there was no way to reverse it, when it truly became "death" to us. We couldn't do it, and Standard couldn't do it either when I went there. [But that's jumping ahead a bit, so he'll leave that for now.] That's when the Resistance was formed, and the branches of Heartland Duel School became branches of it, Spade and Clover. For a while, we focused on figuring out what the invasion was for, and eventually we found out that Academia and the Fusion Dimension wanted to fuse together all four dimensions.
To get that information, we had to fight, and even though we were all willing to do it to survive, not everyone was willing to use the card-sealing function even though it meant a defeated enemy could never return, one less in Academia's overwhelming numbers. Yuto and Ruri were always like that...neither of them wanted to hurt anyone, and that didn't change when the war began. It tore them both up even when they had to fight normally, but Yuto had more time to adjust and he at least got used to doing what he needed to survive.
[As he goes on, his voice becomes darker, colder, hinting more than enough at what's to come.] They wouldn't take lives, and I wasn't going to make them. So I did it. Yuto talked me down whenever he was around, and there's plenty of Academia soldiers still alive because of his mercy. But just as many are dead by my hand. Hearing them beg for mercy when minutes earlier they'd been laughing at our dead...it only made me want them gone more. They took the lives of my comrades and friends like it was nothing, destroyed the futures of everyone I knew, and they expected me to show them what they'd never deigned to show to us.
And then, a while into the invasion, they did the only thing they could've done to make me hate them even more. They took Ruri. [His voice becomes a low hiss of fury for a moment there before he restrains himself again.] There was a mole placed in Xyz for a while before the invasion, and he told me when I fought him later that the invasion was called so Academia could capture her. I did what was necessary to survive before that, but that was when I started going out of my way to crush any one of those soldiers I could find. I wanted information, I wanted to know how to get her back. I was so blinded by my anger I was willing to do anything to get there.
[He still sounds pretty pissed by the turn of events, but it breaks from his tone as he says that last sentence. Now that he's realised that, fueling himself purely with that spite and hatred he used to doesn't really click anymore.]
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It isn't all that surprising that they would have sought to gain the power of their enemies, or that Shun was the only one of the three people in that picture to use it. Yuto, at least, had never struck him as someone who would be comfortable with that kind of tactic. That quality was one reason Ren liked him so much, honestly.
But that's not to say that he likes Shun less after hearing what he was willing to do. Maybe if he had done it because he'd genuinely thought it was fun and still did...but that's obviously not the case. And that was a pretty noble cause. Although he does think it's a miracle he hasn't scared Shun off yet, if that was what his enemies were like...
And then he gets to Ruri.
Admittedly, his first thought is to wonder if the mole had been killed or sealed into a card, because he sure as hell wouldn't blame Shun if he'd done either. The second is wondering how poorly Shun might react if he scooted over and grabbed his hand. He'll admit, he's not usually the most touchy person and neither is Shun, but if there's any time Shun could probably use it...]
It's really awful, isn't it? Feeling like that. [Maybe if he scoots over a little under the pretense of sliding the phone back along the table...
But once he settles again, he keeps his hands in his lap. For now.]
Did you find out what you needed to know?
["Did you get her back?" is what he really want to know, but he's not sure he should ask that, just in case he didn't.]
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As for the second question, Shun grimaces slightly as he continues the story. The answer to that question was what he'd been about to get to anyway.]
I found out that the leader of Academia was a man named Akaba Leo, and that his son Reiji was in Standard, in charge of his old company and duel school. When I heard that, I decided my plan would be a hostage exchange - I'd capture his son, and force him to return Ruri if he wanted him back. That was when I went to Standard myself, and Yuto followed me. I think he knew what would happen if he let me go unchecked. Leo Corporation and LDS were huge institutions in Maiami City, so it didn't take me long to track their headquarters down, but the CEO was never out in the open. So I started hunting his employees instead, sealing them into cards and sending them to him to lure him to where I could attack. I was convinced they were part of Academia, but Yuto had done his own information-seeking and he was convinced I was wrong. He finally intercepted me when I was about to attack one of LDS' students who wanted revenge for me sealing her teacher into a card, and I threatened to cut him down too if he got in my way. [There's a strain in his tone there that says, now, it's hard to believe he was ever that far gone.]
Before I could...another girl showed up, with Ruri's face. I thought it was her, and Yuto took advantage of my surprise to get me somewhere else. That was the only time I ever confused their faces, because I learnt after that she wasn't the only one with Ruri's face, and that Yuto had people in the other dimensions like that too. [But back to his main point on how his plan failed.]
Anyway, after that LDS sent out that girl who was trying to find me and her friends to lure me out. I crushed them, and I would've sealed them just the same if Akaba Reiji hadn't finally decided to show his face. I thought I'd won at that point, because nobody I'd met in Standard dueled anything like on the level of the Resistance or Academia. But it turned out the father and son hated each other, and that LDS and Academia had never been associated either. I couldn't use him as a hostage, but he knew about the war, and he offered to let me do what I liked with him if I entered some tournament he had upcoming. We shared an enemy, and he was trying to rally Standard against Academia. I agreed.
[With a dismissive, derisive hiss, Shun turns his head away for a moment. "Trying" is really the operative word there, given what happened after.] Maybe it wasn't the worst decision I've ever made, but it's not far off.
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That's the guy you mentioned before, when you said you liked me better!
[That is a pretty generous way of putting what Shun had actually said at the time, but judging by that and his tone here, it's not wrong either. And that also his only interjection for now, because he's quite interested to hear what it is exactly about this guy that makes him so much worse--well, it would seem Shun will be getting to that bit later.
Ren winces a little himself as Shun mention how he turned on Yuto. There's one more thing they have in common...how many times had he thought back to that while Ren had been telling his story? It must have been at least once or twice...
Aaaand a lot of that just brings up a lot of questions, but he doesn't really want to derail Shun and Shun obviously doesn't want to derail himself, so those will just have to wait. anyway, he really is more interested in this other guy Shun said he didn't like as much. Ren scoots over a fraction more and leans forward so he can see Shun's face a little better.]
Was he really that bad? [Like, are you really trying to say that having to work with this guy was almost as bad as threatening to cut down your friend.] If he wasn't an enemy, and he had the resources and motivation to help you...
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He treated me like some attack dog while we were "working together". Those students I attacked, the next time they saw me, thought I'd been their friend and another student for years, because of him. If I tried to get out of his sight, he'd set his employees to follow me. Whenever he wanted me to bite, he'd twist my trauma against me and show me some cheap Solid Vision knockoff of Heartland, then act superior when he couldn't force me to talk about the war because I couldn't talk about it like that. His supposed rallying of Standard amounted to sending unprepared duelists out as fodder against an Academia incursion and seeing who survived to form his first team, then using that as a rally point. And don't get me started on his supposed "leadership" skills.
[He's getting a little too heated about this again, though, and he lets out a sharp breath, trying to find where he'd been in the tale before this.]
That was what the tournament was for, anyway, trying to pick out duelists he thought could fight. There turned out to be two Academia duelists in there anyway - one I defeated, but that guy insisted I not card him so he could be interrogated, then let him escape like an incompetent idiot. That mistake almost killed me later on. But before that...
[It's hard to know how to put this next bit, partially because Shun knows so little of what actually happened. Pained lines set in around his eyes even before he starts speaking again.] The night that Academia soldier escaped, Yuto encountered him, probably trying to get answers from him as well. For a while, it was just those two dueling and Yuya trying to intervene, and Akaba and I were watching from LDS Tower. But the video cut off after the soldier vanished and Yuya and Yuto had put down their arms - and LDS started getting Synchro readings with the kind of power you only get from a duelist using their own dimension's summoning method. I knew who it was, someone we called the "Pawn of Fusion", a Synchro resident we thought was part of Academia. I was about to leave and fight by Yuto's side against him, but that bastard stopped me. Told me that if I intervened, it could ruin everything, as if everything else that night hadn't been noticeable enough. I still had no lead but him to get to Ruri, so I stayed, but I wasn't calm about it. It didn't feel right.
[Fingers digging into the fabric of his pants for a moment, all the bitterness talking about Reiji disintegrates into something more somber in the next moment.] I lost contact with Yuto after that night. I couldn't get any answers out of LDS, and then Yuto's ace monster turned up in Yuya's hands in his next tournament duel. I thought he'd killed Yuto and I almost beat the hell out of him for it twice, but that Academia incursion I mentioned began then. That soldier I defeated came back and defeated me, and would've sealed me if Serena - another one with Ruri's face - hadn't come looking for me. She was the first defect I ever saw from Academia, and she hadn't even been on the front lines, but she wanted to know the real story of the war, not Academia's painted-up version. She carried me out of that, and the survivors of that day became the Lancers. We were supposed to be some kind of vanguard, giving Standard something to aspire to and making allies in other dimensions, and I didn't want to be part of that then. I was still focused on Ruri, and wanted to get to the Fusion Dimension. But Serena convinced me to go along with Synchro first, and then it turned out Akaba had reverse-engineered the dimensional transportation technology. The only place he could've gotten that was Yuto's duel disk, and I assumed Yuya had given it to him after that night. Before I could attack Yuya for it, though, I saw...I think it must have been Yuto's spirit, because I know now Yuya's holding his soul, telling me to trust him. I thought I was hallucinating, but after that I couldn't lash out at him the same way I'd tried to.
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It takes him a moment to remember where he's heard the name "Yuya" before, and he can't quite keep himself from frowning as he finally remembers Yuto's post a week or so ago about losing another god. There was no saying that was the same Yuya, but hopefully that Yuya kept his mouth shut all the same.
As Shun goes on, Ren an't help but feel like that's a little familiar too. What Aichi had done hadn't quite been the same--Ren had at least been aware of what happened and it wasn't like he'd died--but at the time, it had still felt like he was losing him forever. At least Shun had been able to see Yuto again too, even if--
He frowns a little at Shun's tense fingers as he reaches the end. That...wasn't how Yuto had died...? Unless Shun had just been seeing things...but he would know if it was really Yuto's spirit better than anyone...so maybe something had happened to both of them later...?
He isn't really sure what to say to any of that. It's all very confusing, and Shun probably wouldn't appreciate brainstorming the finer details of how Yuto might have come to be here. But this does finally seem like the right time for another response. He finally reaches out take one of his hands and slips his fingers between Shun's]
...I thought I lost one of my friends for a while too. Not because he died, but...it was supposed to be something just as permanent. If I hadn't known what had happened or had a chance to say goodbye...
[Well, it would have been awful and he can't blame Aichi for wanting to spare everyone that awfulness.]
What did you find in Synchro? It seems weird he would want to go there first, unless it was to help give the others more experience?
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The feeling of contact snaps him out of the brief reverie, and his fingers twitch back instinctively at it, the typical slight flinch from contact when it had mostly meant a potential attack for so long. He's not sure enough whether Ren's trying to comfort him or comfort himself to refuse it, though, because after subjecting him to a talk like this it'd be a bit more callous than he prefers to act towards his friends to throw off an attempt to ground himself, even if it is an unfamiliar one.
He doesn't exactly return the gesture, but his hand at least relaxes to rest in the same kind of position, Shun's jaw set as he nods at where Ren's own experience trails off.]
I was furious at the start, but once it wore off, having both Yuto and Ruri gone was like losing everything all over again.
[The admission is quiet, and as restrained as he can make it, because he certainly hadn't felt like being restrained about it then.
After a moment, he lets out a breath and goes on to answer Ren's question.]
He wanted to find allies before we went to Fusion. I don't know if he planned it or not, but we were all split up when we got there. Some of the others apparently turned up in groups, but I was completely alone, so I went underground. I didn't know if the others had been lost between dimensions or what, but I looked for information and played in gambling duels to try and find strong duelists. Everyone I met there was weak, but that was when I first dueled the Lancer who turned out to be the mole placed in Xyz. He claimed to be an LDS exchange student, but he didn't play anything like them. He had the steel, the edge they'd always lacked.
But Synchro itself was disgusting. Imagine a city where everything on the ground is slum, and the single percentage of the rich live literally above everyone else in their ivory towers while corrupt officials maintain that and crush any attempts to rise up. The underground duels were raided - all the Tops residents everyone knew came to watch were gone by then, of course - and all of us there were arrested. I started a fight in the prison and got sent to solitary confinement for it, but by the time I escaped almost all the rest of the Lancers had been brought to the jail too and were breaking out. I saved us from one recapture, but then we ran into the head of security himself, Jean-Michel Roger, smug bastard that he was. The governing council of that city in Synchro wouldn't take a side in the war when they learnt about it, but Akaba came in, after he'd left us all to rot in prison for a few days doing whatever the hell he was doing, to broker a deal. We ended up being forced into the Friendship Cup, one of Synchro's traditions, and if we could prove ourselves against the city's best, they'd join the war effort.
It was basically a gilded cage, being allowed that. We were locked up in fancy rooms, completely isolated from each other, only let out to duel. And my first opponent was that traitor and spy who'd crawled into the Lancers. [His fingers tense and curl again at that, though it's residual anger rather than pain this time.]
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He give a long, skeptical sounding hum at the idea that Akaba had planned on everyone being split up on arrival. Deciding to do it after arrival, maybe, but having no chance to take in the situation together or make arrangements to meet up again...that sounds more like he wasn't familiar enough with the technology he was trying to use.
He rest his chin in his other hand and his elbow on his knee as Shun starts to describe Synchro, and his expression grows more closed off the more Shun talks about it. Especially when he gets to the council and Ren hums again, this time in disapproval. He's unfortunately met a few of that exact type of person--people who wouldn't lift a finger unless it benefited them personally somehow. He tried not to do business with them as much as possible, but there was only so much he and Tetsu could do sometimes.]
That's not surprising. They were probably afraid you might do something they wouldn't like if you could talk to each other and work together.
[The way Shun tenses up again is a little uncomfortable, but Ren still eaves his hand right where it is for now.]
Was that when he told you he was the spy? [Since it didn't sound like it had been that first duel.] How much did you make him regret it?
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I suspected he was a traitor already, so I drove him into a corner until he finally took off his mask and showed himself. I hadn't known exactly who to blame for Ruri or the invasion before that, and when he admitted it I had a target for all my comrades' regrets, all that I'd taken it on myself to become a channel for. I ended the duel with Satellite Cannon Falcon and destroyed half the track with it, but when I tried to seal him into a card I found out my duel disk had been tampered with when I'd handed it over for modification with the others before we left for Synchro. I couldn't use the sealing function anymore, so I tried to beat him down even though he was already semiconscious at best. The security crews dragged me away before I could actually do anything, though.
[He definitely sounds a little bitter about that, because that's one time he considers his blind rage actually justified for.]
I couldn't trust anyone after that. If they weren't from my own dimension, they were an enemy, and if they got in my way I'd treat them like I would any other. I went into my next duel with that in mind, against a Synchro resident called Crow.
[It's pretty clear from the absolute dissipation of negative emotion from Shun's voice at that point that things changed after that.]
We were both furious with our situations - me with the war, Crow with being locked at the bottom of society and the orphaned children he looked after having no future beyond that. He wanted to carve a new path for them, and during our duel, I realised I respected that. That there were worthy things to fight for even outside of the war. But his children were watching the duel, and one of them fell from a bridge across the track onto one of Crow's monsters. I was behind him, so I could see it, but he couldn't, and he wouldn't listen when I told him to stop the duel. He didn't even realise until just before the kid fell off, and at the speed we were going, it'd be a miracle if he lived hitting the track unprotected.
So I took advantage of the autopilot function they use in D-Wheels and rode Revolution Falcon to help him instead. I caught him before he was hurt, but everyone seemed surprised that I'd do something like that to help another person. Even the kid asked me why I did it, so I told him that before the war, I'd had children like him cheering me on as well. [A faintly mournful note creeps into his voice at that.] And I realised that I'd forgotten why I'd started fighting, what had made me so angry about the war in the first place. Those children...they should never have had to live through something like the war, or Synchro's society. Crow and I started that duel as enemies, but we ended it as friends. It was his battlefield, not mine, and it was the first time in a long time I can remember being fine with losing.
Losing in the Friendship Cup meant being sent into what might as well have been the depths of hell, though, so I promised him I'd claw my way out from that and we'd both win our respective battles before I was taken away. [There's that quiet disgust again, as he remembers it being when he learnt what the stakes of that tournament were, hidden behind a name like that.]
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But he is glad that Shun didn't stay in that state of distrust forever, for his own good and everyone else's.
A smile slowly forms on his face as Shun talks about Crow and the children...at least until he mentions the D-Wheels and then Ren spends most of the rest of staring blankly through his face while his smile fades away as he tries to work out what the heck that is. Because he knows what it sounds like, but he's having a really hard time imagining that that's actually what it is.]
...Wait, what's a D-Wheel?
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It's a specialised system they use in the Synchro Dimension. It's something like a motorcycle with a duel disk built in, they use it for Riding Duels, which are a bit like a duel and a race at the same time. Obviously most people don't have the skill to manually use something like that and play at the same time, so they have an autopilot system which maintains your speed and stops you from running into walls or anything stupid like that.
[Not that it saves anyone from actively malicious acts like having someone ram into them, but he supposes it's better than nothing.]
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