Title: Living, Breathing Memory

Summary: The memory of that creep Divine still haunted him sometimes. What was worse, sometimes he felt as if Divine were back to remind him of that time when he doubted himself. Or at least his likeness. One-shot.

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.

Rua opened his eyes and saw a man with red hair.

Divine.

The way his hair covered one of his eyes, that creepy smile…

Divine held up a small jar in his hand, containing a miniature Ruka with fairy wings.

"Ruka!" yelled Rua in a panic, bolting up, only to discover he was in a glass box. He could only pound on the glass as Divine crushed the jar in his hand, and held up a trap card. There was a flash of searing green light and then –

"Ruka!" yelled Rua again, waking up abruptly, breathing as if he had just been drowning.

Across the room, his Signer sister rolled over in her bed tiredly, still asleep. It had been a dream. To think, what had happened months ago still haunted him on occasion…He remembered the feeling when he lost to Divine, thinking he couldn't protect his sister. Because he wasn't a Signer and never would be powerful enough to do that properly. Of course, he usually didn't have those kinds of thoughts anymore, after all the Signers and he had been through. Yet still…the memory of that creep Divine – who had put him through a test duel like a lab rat and wanted to recruit his sister in a psychic army – still haunted him sometimes.

What was worse, sometimes he felt as if Divine were back to remind him of that time when he doubted himself. Or at least his likeness. Rua remembered the first day of Duel Academy not long ago...

The teacher, Maria – Sensei, had introduced Rua and Ruka as the new students, Tenpei smiling and nodding at them from his seat. Tenpei was, besides Ruka, Rua's best, and for a time, only friend. But then Rua and Ruka had met Yusei and the others. And they were sure to make friends now that they were going to public school, right?

It was during the Practice Duels when Rua saw that guy. Rua was in his seat in the stands next to Tenpei. Ruka was up, and it was soon after the duel started Rua truly looked at her opponent. He felt a jolt in his stomach.

The flip of the hair, the look on the face, and the shape of the kid's eyes. A living, breathing duplicate of Divine. For a moment, he felt a strong urge to jump up in his seat and yell for Ruka to look out, to tell her to run away as far as she could. If the kid was several years older with different hair and eye color, he could be Divine's twin.

He leaned over to Tenpei and whispered, "Hey Tenpei? Who's that guy dueling Ruka?"

Tenpei pushed up his glasses on his face and glanced at the other side of the dueling field. "Oh, that's Sly. He doesn't talk much, kind of an outsider, but he's a pretty good duelist."

Rua watched as…Sly summoned the Duel Monster Eccentric Boy. He wondered if the card were to attack his sister it could cause her real harm. He shuddered lightly.

Hours later, as school let out and children spilled from the Academy doors, Rua held back to ask the teacher something about spell cards. He told Ruka to go on ahead and meet up with Aki – neesan.

As Rua left the classroom, his thoughts were still on the boy who looked so much like Divine – Sly was it? A relative of Divine? A brother or cousin of some sort? Then, as Rua turned the corner, as if he had summoned him, there was Sly. Walking ahead of him, hands in his pockets, head down. After a second of hesitation, Rua picked up his pace and was right next to Sly and addressed him.

"Hey…you're Sly, right?" asked Rua nonchalantly, mirroring the Divine look-alike and stuffing his hands in his pocket.

Sly looked over at Rua and responded, "Yeah, so what?"

Rua paused again, and then asked bluntly, "Are you a psychic duelist?" then immediately bit his tongue.

Sly narrowed his eyes in suspicion said, "No…why do you ask that?"

Rua blurted out, "Do…do you know a man named Divine? Or used to know –"

Rua stopped abruptly, realizing Sly had stopped walking, and looked behind him. Sly's fists were clenched. Rua thought he could see recognition in Sly's eyes at the name, but it could have been his imagination.

Sly slowly unfurled his hands. He turned the other way and said over his shoulder to Rua, "No, I don't. Geez, don't ask so many questions." Then, he stalked away.

After that, Sly always had an annoyance with Rua, and Rua with Sly. The two were self-proclaimed rivals. Ruka always tried to include Sly in their group of friends, but Rua couldn't shake the suspicious feeling that Sly was somehow connected to the frightening Divine…

To Rua, Sly was more than just a moody kid with an indifferent attitude in class or a sour classmate or even a rival.

He was a living, breathing memory of the time Rua failed to do what was most important to him: protecting his twin sister.

The End

Author's Note: My first story very much focused on Rua/Leo, one of my very favorite characters. This story is a possible explanation why Rua and Sly feel such rivalry against each other and why Rua is hesitant to try and be friends with Sly. Are Divine and Sly related? Maybe. The reason Ruka has fairy wings in Rua's dream is because Divine wanted to recruit Ruka for her connection to the Spirit World. This story takes place sometime in the six month gap between the Dark Signers Arc and the Yliaster Arc. Well written reviews are loved, flames are not.