Title: Vision Not Expected
Characters: Shou, Juudai||Pair: N/A
Words: 958/958||Chapters: 1/1
Genre: Drama, Friendship||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: GX AU: B12, 950-999 words; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #25, 958 words; One Friendship Boot Camp, #21, special
Universe/Timeline: Canon up until this point. Season 4, after Manjoume's experiences with Edo and before Ryou and Shou's experiences with the Psycho Style Duelist.
Summary: After his experiences in Dark World, Shou's noticed something about himself that's a bit different.

Shou wasn't certain of when it started.

No, that was wrong. Shou knew exactly when it started. What he didn't know why was it began in the first place. Sure, he'd seen it happen to other people, or heard about it, mostly those who dueled against Juudai a time or two.

He'd dueled against his aniki a couple of times. More than he could properly count, really. They did it at least once a week. Sure, he lost every time as long as they used their duel disks – Juudai's marvelous draws only seemed to work when they used his real deck – but regardless, they dueled.

And now he could see three Ojamas floating along casually by Manjoume's head. Manjoume himself muttered to them as if he didn't care what anyone else would say if they saw him, but he'd talked to 'himself' so long that no one seemed to care one little bit anymore.

Am I really seeing that? He wasn't in that other world anymore. There shouldn't be any reason that he could see Duel Spirits.

Only there they were. Not just the Ojamas – Yellow kept waving at him and Shou kept avoiding looking – but others. Before Johan left, Shou got used to seeing Ruby Carbuncle and Hane Kuriboh rolling around together.

Not every spirit could be seen. He wanted to ask aniki or Manjoume or Hayato how they managed it, but the words refused to come out properly, even when he tried to type an e-mail to Hayato.

But he could see little flickers here and there, sights that weren't sights, shapes and colors that did not clear no matter how he stared and rubbed his eyes, noises that might have been voices if he'd been able to hear them properly.

Most of those were around his aniki, which didn't surprise him. If those were spirits, then he guessed they were high level ones, ones that someone like him couldn't see.

So he watched and tried not to talk and didn't always remember that he shouldn't, not when he'd spent two months without anyone except Ojama Yellow and other spirits to talk to.

People stared at him. People murmured when he forgot and spoke to what they saw only as thin air.

How does aniki deal with this? That was something else that he wanted to ask Juudai. Only he never did. Never could. Couldn't find the words.

And then one evening, when Shou spent part of the day just staring at the spirits that liked to appear anywhere and everywhere, Juudai sat down next to him and said what Shou hadn't ever expected him to.

"You can see them too, right?" Juudai asked, and Shou found himself far too surprised to answer in any way but the unvarnished truth.

"Ever since we came back from here."

Juudai nodded, as if he'd expected nothing less. "I talked to Yubel about it. They said it might happen."

A sort of noise escaped Shou's lips. He wasn't sure of what it meant, only that it was there. He swallowed, trying to find words, but Juudai just shook his head and smiled.

"Don't worry about it. Do you have any special friends?" He nodded towards Shou's deck. "Anyone from there?"

Shou swallowed and shook his his head in his own turn. "No...I just...see what's there? Who's there?" He wasn't even certain if that made any sense. Didn't most people who could see spirits have a specific partner? His aniki had Hane Kuriboh. Johan had Ruby Carbuncle. Manjoume had Ojama Yellow.

And he didn't. He didn't have anything or anyone.

"That's good too. You might get a special friend, you might not." Juudai leaned back and stared up at the stars starting to prick at the sable velvet sky. "Let me know if you do? I'd wanna meet them."

Shou breathed out for a moment. The idea of introducing some special spirit to his aniki warmed a place inside of him. "All right. I will."

He wanted to find a friend. But he had almost all of the Roids that existed and while he'd seen a spirit or two, none of them really seemed like the particular friend that he wanted to have. They were friends. They just weren't that friend.

A thought or two flickered through his mind. "Should I tell nii-san?" His big brother hadn't been there all that long; just a few days. Maybe hearing something about this would help him work towards a recovery.

"That's up to you. Do you think that he'd want to know?"

Juudai was like that these days. He didn't just tell people things. He asked. He let people decide for themselves. Shou hadn't even realized how many times Juudai just made decisions until he didn't do it anymore.

"I think so." Shou said after a few moments of thought. "I really do."

That got a small nod. Shou glanced at Juudai and squeaked. On Juudai's other side there now sat a being that Shou had only seen when Juudai dueled. Shou swallowed and squeaked twice before he forced the words out.

"E-Elemental Hero – Neos?"

Neos glanced at him with something that might have been a smile. It felt like one, at least. Then he vanished again, and Shou breathed, slumping back for a few seconds.

"Shou?" His aniki looked at him and Shou stared back before he looked away.

"It's nothing." Neos wasn't there anymore. Or Shou couldn't see him. He wasn't sure of which it was. But he didn't worry about it. He made up his mind instead to tell his brother about this the next day, when they were down at the ocean on their daily walk.

It would be a glorious sunny day. Perfect for telling important secrets.

The End

Notes: I may write other things where Shou can see Duel Spirits after season 3. We'll see.