Breathe in.

Shiver.

It's over now. Nothing holding him down.

Breathe out.

Shredded clothes. Dirtied floor.

Akari's going to kill me.

Gotta get up. Pain. Legs crumple under him.

Crawl. Wrap up in blanket. (doesn't matter, already dirty everything dirty the floor the walls the desk the air)

It's so cold.

Fall down the ladder. Have to get clean.

If it gets cleaned up, everything will be okay again.

Start the shower. Pitter-patter, spraying water. Hot, scalding, perfect.

It won't come off. A waterfall, slowly changing to icy cold. It hurts, like a million little pinpricks against his skin.

Still so dirty.

The world is waking up now. Electronics whirring, people moving about, just another normal day.

Except it isn't.

Akari's muffled voice. Can't hear it over the cold spraying water. Don't want to hear it.

Thump, thump, in the hallway. Don't go into my room, I haven't gotten to it yet, please don't be mad I'll clean everything up…

Screaming. He doesn't like the screaming. Now his ears have joined the rest of his body in hurt. Huddled in the corner, water spraying onto his legs, just make it all go away.

Akari's here now. Don't be mad, don't scream, don't yell, please, I can't fight with you right now.

Hand on his shoulder. Soft, hesitant, comforting. Suddenly he isn't here anymore, he's back on the floor, held down by otherwordly chains, being hurt, petted, kissed and punched and hugged and smashed.

But he can move this time. Hit the hand away, voice his thoughts, mantra of no no no no no no no…

Akari again. Oh god, he hit his sister. He never did that. They fought and yelled and didn't always get along but he didn't hit his sister.

"I'm sorry-" he chokes out, but Akari's gone. She comes back with a towel, turns off the water, wrenches away the soaked blanket that had wrapped around his waist.

He tries to say again, "I'm sorry," as Akari pulls him to sit on the edge of the tub, wrapping the dry towel around his shoulders.

"Can you tell me what happened, Yuma?"

…

Silence stretches out. It hurts, like it's mawing a hole in his chest.

"Yuma…" Akari's hand is on his knee. Trying desperately to comfort, to make things better somehow.

But it doesn't.

"I'm going to call school and the news station, okay?" she squeezes his knee and he stiffens like he's been hit.

Her eyes scream Bloody Murder as she leaves the room.

Hours seem to pass, as he sits half in the bathtub, trying to forget. Akari comes in and out a few times.

A woman in a suit. Men in uniforms. Trying to talk to him. Stop it, just leave me alone.

"Hey," Akari is kneeling down next to him. "The police want to do a medical exam. Are you…up for that?"

No. That would mean letting someone see, they'd know, they'd know what happened and that can never happen no no no – but he nods yes when his eyes look at her face, sunken eyes and trails of wet on her cheeks and looking so very haunted that he can't take it.

The medical examiner is nice, soft-spoken, gentle, maybe things will be okay. He takes a bunch of pictures of his cuts and bruises and Yuma shifted uncomfortably at the attention.

"It doesn't look good."

The sheets are nice and warm, clean white fluffy clouds that he melts into.

"We don't have any evidence. Unless he talks, we don't have a case."

Akari's talking with some people outside his hospital room. It doesn't matter. He's safe here.

"It's a precaution. He could be a suicide risk."

"You're not tying up my brother!"

The tiles on the ceiling are uneven. Makes it hard to count them.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but you don't have a say in this matter…"

They grab his wrists and put big cuffs on them, hook him onto the railing. No no not him he's trying not to go back there, it's so hard he can't move just like on the floor –

They're done as quickly as possible, he can breathe again. "I have to go deal with some things, Yuma. Try to get some rest for me?" Akari breaks through his mind's spiraling and he nods.

The sterile room is all white, white clean happy gleaming, lies. The curtains are pulled over the only window, blocking him off from the whole world. The beep of the heart monitor is the only sound, steadily dinging, reminding him he's alive.

How unfortunate.

Yuma shifted uncomfortably, forced to lie on his back by the cuffs on his arms, holding, restraining him. He doesnt't know how much time is passing – minutes, hours, days? – did it even matter?

The hospital room's door cracked open and Akari tiptoed in. No light shone from the hallway.

"Hey there. You doing okay?"

Yuma nodded, avoiding looking her in the eyes.

"I brought some of your things. Your deck, I know it's important to you…I thought maybe Tetsuo could come and play with you while you're recovering-"

"No!" Yuma stared at the ceiling, muscles tensed.

Akari nearly dropped the bundle in her arms, "…Why not?"

I don't want him to find out about this. He tried to save me and he failed and he can't know, Yuma started hyperventilating, the beeping getting faster and faster, his mind falling into the memories of a duel he thought had ended a nightmare –

You are my servant, the tentacles wrapped around his arms and legs, you can't run away now, you're all mine…

No, it was fine, fine, everything was fine, he's just with Akari, not on that pavilion or in his house any more no Key no Numbers no Astral.

Akari slipped her hand into his, squeezing tight. "Do you…want to say anything…else?" Yuma shook his head fervently, eyes shut tight.

"…Okay. Okay. How about I get you some juice? I'll be right back," Akari quickly exited, collapsing onto a bench in the dark hallway and pulling out her D-Gazer to make a call.

"He just – went crazy when I mentioned his best friend…I don't know… Oh god, what if Tetsuo did do - …Yeah I'll send you his address."

Yuma took a few deep breaths, the beeping of the heart monitor returning to normal.

He turned to look at what Akari had brought, laid out on the bedside table.

And it was there, sitting innocently on top of his duel disk.

He wasn't safe. He was never going to be safe. Astral would always find a way back to him.

Astral would always be inside of him.

When Akari came back into the room, she found Yuma crying silently, streams pouring down his face.

"…You know you can tell me anything, right, Yuma?" she desperately tried once again.

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter because none of you can see him and he's not going to leave and…" Yuma sobbed out. "And if he wanted to do it again there's nothing anyone could do to stop him."

"…Who is he?"

"Astral. He lives inside the key, but not really, he lives inside of me…he's been following me around and I didn't – I didn't – he couldn't even touch me before last night but there was a card and…"

"The thing that hurt you is a spirit inside the key?" Akari tried to process the information that there was a spirit inside the Key as she took in the fact that it hurt her brother.

"Yes, I – "

Akari looked to the table where the key sat on top of Yuma's duel disk. She grabbed it and threw it on the floor, smashing it with her foot.

Silence fell between the siblings.

"Akari…" Yuma whispered disbelievingly.

"Nobody hurts my little brother."