[Story] Trauma

[dark_rebellion]

Trauma

Waking up in his bedroom in the basement of the Sakaki home, Yuto sat up and rubbed his head before gradually getting up and wandering over to the built in wardrobe at the back of the room. He wasn't the type to be a morning person usually, especially since he had the habit of sometimes staying up late writing, so it often took him a few moments to really clear his head and wake up properly.

Idly, he reached out for the handle of the wardrobe, but then, as the tiredness began to clear... he froze. He remembered that he hadn't checked the wardrobe the night before, in case Yuya had placed any unwanted 'surprises' in it. His heart beat hard as he fought with the anxiety of just opening the door.
Eventually, in a quick movement, he pulled back the door and braced himself...!
But nothing happened.
Yuto breathed a sigh of relief that there was nothing there. No loud bang. No glitter littering his floor. Yuto rubbed his head in frustration, realizing how ridiculous it was that he was scared of even going into his own wardrobe, but he didn't want to mention or admit this to Yuya.
If anything, he felt Yuya really should know better.

Shaking his head, Yuto ignored these thoughts and began getting ready for the day.

--------------------------

As Yuto entered the kitchen, Yuya almost immediately ran into him on his way out of the house, with a croissant stuffed in mouth.

"Ooops! Bye Yuto!" he quickly said, the croissant muffling most of it, before he darted out of the door.

"Well... he was in a hurry this morning." Yuto observed as he joined his parents in the kitchen. Yoko was stood behind the kitchen counter, while Yushou was reading a newspaper at the table.

"He has a tournament in Heartland today apparently." Yoko replied as she slid the pancakes she had been cooking onto a plate.

"Didn't he do one just yesterday in Domino?" Yuto questioned.

"And the day before that, here in Maiami I think it was." Yushou added on, not really looking up from the newspaper.

Yuto raised an eyebrow at this. He hadn't realized just how many tournaments Yuya had been doing. It seemed a little excessive.

"I even made pancakes for him this morning." Yoko sighed, holding up the plate. "He never usually passes them up."

Yuto frowned a little, feeling a bit annoyed at how inconsiderate Yuya had been to their mother. With that, he gave her a smile.

"I'll take them."

"Are you sure?" Yoko questioned. "You usually don't like having them for breakfast."

"It's fine." he reassured her. "They shouldn't go to waste. Besides, it makes a change from what I usually have."

"Alright then."

With that, Yoko placed the plate of pancakes in front of Yuto. They were garnished with fresh blueberries and strawberries and had a drizzling of syrup on them. It's true Yuto wasn't fond of having such sweet breakfasts, but he didn't dislike it either.

As be began eating them, Yushou lowered the paper he was reading and looked over at him.

"I believe you have a duel at the Super Junior League later today, right?"

Yuto nodded. "I do, but it's not until later today. I believe it's being streamed."

"Ah good!" Yushou replied. "I'll make sure to watch it. Do your best, Yuto."

"Of course."

------------------------------

Later that day Yuto was standing in the middle of the arena as his duel with the Super Junior League was beginning. He glanced around at the excited audience as the Master of Ceremonies began to introduce him.

"From Maiami City, we have Sakaki, Yuto!"

The audience erupted into a cheer as his name was announced.

"And his opponent, from Domino City, and second year Ra Yellow Student at Duel Academy, Ishizuka Hiro!"

The crowd cheered again as Yuto looked over at his opponent that was stood opposite him. Being a second year at the Academy meant he was probably about 16 years old or so, though no matter the age of the opponent, Yuto never under-estimated them. They were all equal on the dueling field, after all.

"I'm so excited!!" Hiro exclaimed suddenly. "I've been watching your duels and you're by far my favourite duelist here in the Super Junior League!"

"Really?" Yuto was surprised by this. Usually Yuya was the one who had 'fans' of his dueling, so Yuto wasn't used to having someone who was a fan of him.

"Yeah!! It's been my dream to get to duel you here and I finally get to!"

Yuto smiled at his opponent. It was quite flattering that his opponent held him in such high regard.

"I'm honoured. Let's make this a great duel to remember then."

Hiro nodded eagerly as the duel began and the Action Field was set.

"Action Field set: Mirror City!"

Yuto glanced around curiously as the arena around himself and his opponent changed to a city full of skyscrapers, all of which appeared to be made of a reflective glass. They were stood on top of the roof of one of the smaller buildings, so a lot of other buildings towered around them. Yuto noted there seemed to be floating glass platforms amongst the buildings which they could make use of to move between them.

"ACTION DUEL!"

The cluster of action cards exploded and rained over the field as Yuto's opponent, Hiro, began his first move.

"I summon Ancient Gear Knight in attack...!" he proclaimed as the monster appeared on the field.
Yuto honestly wasn't even sure what happened from this point. The moment he saw the Ancient Gear Knight appear on the field, his heart began to pound, his breathing quickened and his head went cloudy. He was instantly transported to his memories of Heartland being attacked by Academia. Memories of the Ancient Gear monsters firing at them, memories of those he cared for around him being turned into cards.
Memories of fighting for his life.
The cheers and noise of the audience in the arena transformed into the desperate screams of the people in his memories.
In his mind, he was no longer in that arena. He was back on the battlefield in Heartland.

Yuto's responses to Hiro's moves were quick and ruthless. With every Ancient Gear monster he summoned, Yuto found a way to take it down without mercy and any attempt Hiro made to attack were either deflected or, if they hit, just fuelled Yuto's delusion, making him believe that he was under attack. Some of the attacks that missed happened to hit the buildings on the Action Field, destroying them or setting them on fire, making a scene not unlike the war-torn Heartland that Yuto remembered.

The fire, the screams, the explosions... they all echoed repeatedly in his mind as he felt the anger swell up inside him.
Eventually, the rush of traumatic memories became too much for him as he held his head in his hands. Those memories felt like physical pain to him and like his head was going to explode from the sheer amount of stress his body was under.

While Yuto seemed distracted by his thoughts and wasn't able to react to his moves as well as he had been doing, Hiro was eventually able to get out what he considered his ace monster, Ancient Gear Golem - Ultimate Pound to the field. The mechanical giant towered as high as some of the glass buildings that were on the field.
Hiro felt with this, he'd have Yuto on the run. Maybe he could still win this! Right now Yuto had out 'The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor' in defence (2000 DEF) and his Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon in attack (2500 ATK) with no overlay units left on it. Nothing he felt that Ultimate Pound couldn't handle.

"I attack Fragile Armor with Ancient Gear Golem - Ultimate Pound!!"

Yuto, disorientated by his thoughts, attempted to run to find an action card, but he stumbled for a moment, giving the mechanical giant plenty of time to bring down it's large metal fist onto Fragile Armor, instantly destroying it. Ultimate Pound's effect kicked in, inflicting piercing damage, that hit Yuto with force and threw him across the roof he was on and over the edge, only just stopping himself from falling by reaching out and grabbing hold of the side of the building (500 LP).

"Because Ultimate Pound destroyed a monster by battle, I can discard a machine monster to attack again!" Hiro announced, before swiftly discarding a card from his hand. "This time, I attack Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon!!"

Hiro realized that if this attack hit, he'd win! The mechanical giant once again raised it's metal fist into the air, this time aiming for Yuto's ace. Yuto quickly glanced around from where he was, still hanging off the edge of the building he was on. Then, he spotted an action card on a glass platform beneath him. With that, Yuto propelled himself off the building in a flip, falling and landing on the glass platform, quickly grabbing the action card and instantly playing it.

"I play the Action Card - Evasion to negate the attack!"

With that Ultimate Pound stopped moving, it's fist only inches from Dark Rebellion.
Hiro gave out a bit of an annoyed grunt at the attack being stopped, but as he watched Yuto climb up the glass platforms, then collapse from exhaustion when he got back onto the rooftop, he realized the duel was still very much in his favour.

"Whoo! Yeah!! You may have stopped my attack, but there's no way you can win this!! You only have 500 LP left and a dragon with no overlay units that can't do anything!! I end my turn!"

Hiro's celebration rattled in Yuto's head as he unsteadily pulled himself up to his feet. Looking over to him, all he could see and hear were the laughing, jeering Academia students from his memories. Acting as if their attacks were all just one big game to them. Laughing at the terror they were causing around them. Laughing at the misfortune of those they were attacking.

Breathing quick, deep breaths, Yuto stared down his enemy in front of him, completely unaware that there was no 'enemy'. Hiro, feeling unnerved by the way Yuto was looking at him, stopped gloating and stepped back a little where he was.
Was this really the same Yuto that he watched the duels of? He never seemed this cold or ruthless in the duels he observed before.

"It's my turn! DRAW!!"

Yuto looked at the card he drew and instantly knew his move.

"I play The Phantom Knights' Rank-Up-Magic Launch!!"

"W-wait... what...?!"

Yuto ignored Hiro's surprise and continued. "I target Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon. I use it to special summon 1 dark XYZ Monster from my extra deck, which is 1 rank higher, as well as attaching this card to it as an additional material!"

Hiro watched in shock as the overlay network opened, swallowing Dark Rebellion and the rank-up-magic card.

"Rising from the deepest depths of darkness, unleashing it's unyielding wrath upon those it opposes! Rank- Up XYZ Change! Appear now! Rank 5! Arc Rebellion XYZ Dragon!"

Appearing on the field was a now more upgraded looking version of Dark Rebellion, which was crackling with blue energy that was all around it. Almost as if responding to Yuto's anger, it lifted it's head and let out a defeating roar, which echoed around the stadium. (3000 ATK)
Yuto quickly jumped onto the dragon's back, the moment it hit the field.

"B-but it has the same attack as Ultimate Pound!" Hiro stuttered. "You can't possibly...!"

"I use one overlay unit. Arc Rebellion gains attack, equal to the total original attack of all other monsters on the field!"
Yuto pointed to Ultimate Pound. "Since Ultimate Pound is the only other monster, Arc Rebellion gains it's attack!"

(3000 ATK ---> 6000 ATK)

Hiro's eyes grew wide. "6-6000 Attack!?"

"I will NEVER lose to Academia! NEVER!"

"W-what? Academia...!?" Hiro looked both terrified and confused as he looked down at the Ra Yellow uniform he was wearing. "Y-you mean Duel Academy?"

"Arc Rebellion! Attack Ultimate Pound! DESTRUCTION DISOBEY!!"

Arc Rebellion quickly raced at Ultimate Pound, crackling with intense energy as it charged it's attack. In desperation, Hiro frantically began searching for an action card to stop it, but he was panicking so much, he was stumbling as he ran.

"No, no, no, NO!"

Arc Rebellion shot through Ultimate Pounds chest at lightning speed and the machine simply exploded with great force, blowing Hiro back and throwing him violently across the field as his life points quickly hit 0. The dragon circled around, but as it did something caught Yuto's eye to the right of him. He spotted his reflection in one of the glass buildings and for a fleeting moment, Yuto swore he saw the reflection of Z-ARC looking back at him from it.
This was enough to jolt him back to his senses.

The Dragon landed and Yuto jumped off it's back as the action field and the dragon faded away around him. There was an absolute eerie silence in the arena. He glanced around the stunned audience and then down at his hands.
They were shaking. His whole body felt like it was buzzing, like his nerves were completely shot.
He took a deep breath in a feeble attempt to calm down and looked over at Hiro who was glancing up at him with what seemed like fear in his eyes. He looked incredibly roughed up from the final attack, which had hit him pretty hard.
Stepping forward, Yuto began trying to give him an apology.

"Hey, I'm--"

"A-ah, i-it's okay. You won!" Hiro spurted out as he scrambled to his feet in a hurray. "I-I... I should've never dueled you!!"
With that, the terrified boy quickly ran out of the arena.

Those last words hit Yuto like a truck. This kid had looked up to him and had looked forward to his duel with him, but because of the deck he used, he'd completely lost his cool and treated Hiro like he was an enemy he had to defeat at all costs, rather than an opponent he was meant to have a fun duel with. He didn't even remember all the details of what had happened, his head felt so clouded, but he knew he'd messed up.

Realizing the awkward silence of the audience, the Master of Ceremonies stepped forward, taking hold of Yuto's arm and raising it in the air.

"Er... and the winner of this match is Sakaki, Yuto!"

The applause was delayed at first, but as more people joined in, it eventually grew around him, but Yuto felt he didn't deserve it.

That wasn't the kind of dueling he wanted to do. He didn't want to scare or hurt anyone.
But he did... and he was ashamed of it. The worst part was, this duel was streamed for more than just the audience that was present to see.
His negative thoughts began spiralling... what would his family think? What about his friends? What about... Ruri...? What would she think of him?
He felt like a monster and... maybe he was.

Maybe there was a reason he saw Z-ARC's reflection as his own...

------------------------------------

Back at the Sakaki family home in Maiami City, Yushou watched the footage of the duel and it's conclusion with a frown. He always watched what he could of his sons duels, not just as their father, but also as an experienced duelist. He could pick up on things they couldn't at times and he used that to give them feedback, but he'd noticed an interesting trend with Yuto. He noticed how he would react to duels involving fusion based decks more negatively and attempted to very quickly finish those duels in question. Despite this, it was always subtle enough where he felt it wasn't a problem, but with this duel, Yuto had overreacted and dueled like his life was in danger, allowing his traumatic memories to overtake him and control him.
A reaction like this wasn't good for Yuto, nor for any opponent on the receiving end of it and watching Yuto's reaction after the duel ended, he could tell that he wasn't proud of what happened.

Yushou knew that at some point, he was going to have to talk to Yuto about this, and see if they could work out a solution, but for now, it was probably for the best to allow Yuto the time and space to calm his nerves down and process what had happened.