Parallel World Fusion

Tenjoin Asuka spends most of her free time daydreaming.

Not because she is absentminded or even because she likes to, but because there is an incessant, gnawing feeling in the back of her mind. Like she's forgetting something important. It distracts her everywhere she goes—and as a Duelist, she hates the feeling that there's something she's missing. She spends hours every day, hardly paying attention in class, staying up at night, just trying to remember whatever it is she ought to remember. She never does, not when she's awake.

But sometimes she dreams, and her dreams are normal enough except, every now and then, she catches fragments of something – someone – with brown hair and a red coat.

Asuka only ever sees his back as he walks away into a crowd and vanishes into a maze of skyscrapers. She can push and shove her way through, fight her hardest to reach him, but he disappears every time and leaves behind a world in greyscale. It's frustrating beyond measure. His bright red coat should be easy to spot, especially when, as Asuka wakes up, she realizes that nothing else in her dreams is red.

It's like the color red belongs to him and him alone.

Class is interrupted by Chronos-sensei taking time to rip into an Osiris Red student for some infraction of Academia's strict regulations, so Asuka resumes daydreaming—or at least, she tries, but Chronos-sensei is too loud for her to think about anything but the present.

She finds herself irritated again, not just at Chronos-sensei but the Osiris Red, too. Asuka is not one of the Obelisk Blue students who look down their nose at anyone in the lesser dorms, and she's actually quite well-known for giving advice to Osiris Red and Ra Yellow students, even protecting them in case upperclassmen get the idea to test out new strategies on them; but this time, she grows surprisingly impatient with the Osiris Red student for just standing there and cowering before Chronos-sensei.

If someone would just stand up to him, Asuka thinks, teach him that every person should be valued, Chronos might not be the overbearing, tyrannical teacher that he is now. Could he change, she wondered. Asuka stifled a laugh at the thought of Chronos-sensei trying to fail everyone so they would stay with him for another year, or even Chronos-sensei bursting into tears of pride for his students.

What an odd thought.

As though that would ever happen.

"You ignorant, stupid little thing, even Osiris Red is too good for someone like you," Chronos-sensei says, sneering, "You are good for nothing, Dropout Boy."

Asuka snaps a pencil.

When she can't sleep, she gets up and wanders the campus.

It's against the rules. Academia has a strict curfew, and anyone caught after hours can be subject to disciplinary action; Asuka has only heard rumors, but apparently, in the depths of the school, like the belly of some great, bloated beast, there is a prison for unruly students. Asuka is afraid. She's not above admitting it. She's only human, after all, and the imagination can turn even a tame reality into something monstrous; but she wanders the campus anyway, because she feels like—

She should be somewhere else.

She should be with someone else.

An odd thought out of many other odd thoughts, but the embarrassment of this one stops Asuka in her tracks. Wanderlust seems much more noble than…that. Maybe Junko is right, that her years of not being in a relationship is taking its toll on her psyche.

At this point, Asuka knows where her feet will take her even if she doesn't particularly think about it. She never sets out with a destination in mind, but every time, she ends up at the Osiris Red dorm. It's a nice place. Certainly nowhere near the luxury of Obelisk Blue, not even half as good as the comfort of Ra Yellow, but no part of Academia can be considered shabby. Osiris Red is a small building, but metal, like everything else, strong and unyielding and cold.

Asuka once mused aloud that Osiris Red would be oddly more fitting as a wood cabin, and that had made the other Obelisk Blue students chortle at what they perceived as an insult. She doesn't think so. It'd be nice if, in the middle of the seamless machinery and harsh iron of Academia, there could be a small bit of nature.

That little cabin of her imagination, modest and quiet, is a sanctuary in comparison to the ostentatious beauty of Obelisk Blue.

"Come on! Destiny HERO Dystopiaguy!"

Asuka watches the Duel, along with the majority of Academia's students, who have all flocked here to see the legendary Edo Phoenix in action. It's brutal. Edo ends the Duel almost as soon as it starts, and on his opponent's turn, no less—the Obelisk Blue student who had the nerve to challenge him won't be hearing the end of it for months. Of course, everyone else cheers. For Academia, power is everything.

But Asuka dislikes Edo Phoenix, and she especially dislikes watching him duel.

He carries rage with him like a birthright, like something deep in his bones. What others see as powerful movements, Asuka sees as burdened by the potential for violence. It traps him. Edo could be more than this, better than this, but he refuses to leave the shelter of anger and resentment. It's a wonder that the grass doesn't die under his feet. It's an even bigger wonder that he manages to be handsome, because it seems statistically impossible that he doesn't have frown lines. Not to mention that if he clenches his jaw any harder, it might just lock up altogether.

Duels should be fun.

She's not sure where she got that notion from, because Academia teaches the exact opposite—Duels are a means to an end, and they should be conducted with methodical planning, burn damage, direct attacks, taking down the enemy at any cost, using any strategy. Asuka doesn't dare to voice her thought, but there's a rebellious voice in her head – not her own voice – that tells her Duels are meant to be fun. They should be enjoyed. They shouldn't be burdened with ugly motives like domination.

That's not all about Edo.

HERO.

If Asuka usually feels that nagging feeling like an itch, whenever she sees Edo play his D-HEROs, that itch becomes a desperate yearning, one that punches her in the gut and forces the air out of her lungs. Destiny HEROs. D-HEROs. HEROs. When she had first witnessed Edo's dueling, she had teared up and her friends had teased her for what they thought was a crush on Edo Phoenix, but—no. That overwhelming feeling of nostalgia isn't for D-HEROs, but something close to it.

"I'll show you the possibilities of my HERO deck!"

It's that boy in her dreams, smiling a beautiful smile that she can't—

No matter how hard she tries, she can't remember whatever it is she's supposed to be remembering, and it is infuriating. All she knows is that it feels like something has been torn from her heart and soul.

When she dreams that night and sees the boy in his red coat, she screams at him to stop.

He leaves her behind anyway.

It's a clear night sky, and Asuka can look beyond the stars to the endless canvas of space.

Elemental HERO.

That's what they're called.

Asuka smiles.

Starve Venom Fusion Dragon.

It's disgusting.

Asuka is awed and terrified by its power, but she finds it disgusting, just like Yuri. She hates it, with every fiber of her being. She's so repulsed that she can't abide its mere presence. It's an amalgamation of nightmares, a patchwork of horror that spits on everything that Fusion represents.

"Oh?" Yuri asks. His voice is silk and cream, meant to get under people's skin. "What would someone like you, a traitor to Academia, know about Fusion?"

"Fusion…Fusion is…"

"Cat's got your tongue?" Yuri laughs his derisive laugh when Asuka doesn't finish her sentence. Both of them know that she's lost. "It's your turn! Go ahead and draw. Bet it all on your next card."

Asuka's heard about Destiny Draw, Shining Draw, whatever people call it—the ability to influence draws, to draw the card you need, to even create the card you need. She's never relied on it. In this instance, though, she knows her deck has nothing that can overcome Starve Venom. Maybe some miracle might happen, and she might draw a card that will let her defeat Yuri, but in this last moment before what will undoubtedly be her imprisonment in a card, she doesn't want a path to victory.

She just wants to know what she's been missing this whole time. Asuka puts her fingers to her Deck, prays with all her strength, and she pulls her next card.

"Draw!"

It's a Trap Card.

HERO Signal.

When a monster you control is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Elemental HERO" monster from your hand or Deck.

It's useless in this situation. Never mind that she doesn't have monsters on her side of the field, she doesn't have any cards that would fit the Special Summon requirements. Asuka stares at the card, her hand shaking, until her vision blurs so much that she can barely read the card text.

"Are you actually crying right now? Oh, this is embarrassing."

"…Judai," Asuka says.

Yuri frowns. "What was that?"

"Fusion is Yuki Judai," Asuka says, smiling so hard that her face hurts, but she remembers him now. She remembers his smile and his unending love for the game, his talent, his stubborn courage. Asuka looks up at Yuri, and she watches his superiority shatter because she knows more than him. "Fusion is possibility, the potential to make things happen, the power to overcome the odds. Fusion is trusting in your cards! And someone like you isn't worthy of using it. All you can do is torture your cards."

Yuri glances at Starve Venom, and Asuka knows that he hears its pained scream. His smile is gone.

"Are you finished?" Yuri asks.

"I end my turn."

"Starve Venom Fusion Dragon: Direct attack."

Asuka looks down at the card in her hand again, HERO Signal. As the vortex of lightning and red energy come for her, she wonders: If she called for him, would he, like in the card, come to her rescue?

Of course he would be hiding himself in the skyscrapers. He'd say it's the proper stage for any HERO, the skyline of a city, surrounded by a dome of stars, illuminated by the moonlight…

Judai winks and points out two fingers.

"Gotcha!"