“Hah…
hah…
hah….”
Katsumi woke up.
A dream that felt way too real.
A world that he still remembered.
It was morning, meaning he had slept through the night.
Katsumi was drenched in sweat.
Whether it was from exhaustion or fear, he did not know.
“What a weird dream.”
‘I am not a dream, father.’
“AHH!”
Katsumi sprang up from his bed and looked around, trying to find who had spoken to him with such unsettling closeness.
‘Not there, father.
In your hand.’
“Hand?”
He glanced at his hand.
There was a card there.
“Blue-Eyes White Dragon?”
‘Yes, father.’
“Am I speaking to a card?”
‘You are talking to me, father.’
Katsumi held his breath for a moment and forced himself to calm down.
A good while later…
“Why are you calling me father?”
‘Because you are my father.’
“I am not a blue-eyed human.”
‘I came to this world with you.’
Boom.
An imaginary bomb dropped on Katsumi’s head.
“Came?
Are you saying…”
“Yes.”
The spirit inhabiting the card spoke.
“I was with you even before yesterday’s meeting.”
Katsumi’s eyes widened in realization.
What did that mean?
It meant he was not the only one who had crossed over.
Others had crossed over with him.
“But wait.
I didn’t keep you on me when I died.
How did you cross over?”
A question that immediately took priority in his mind.
‘That’s wrong.
I was with you alongside them.
However, our positions during the crossing were different.
All of us possessed cards within that alley and were trapped there.’
The spirit claimed it had been with Katsumi before he became the current Katsumi.
But he hadn’t owned any cards back then.
“Oh!
Oh, oh!
You were part of the new deck I bought.”
‘Hmm.’
“But why call me father?
Shouldn’t it be…
Kaiba?”
‘I saw you first.
First is father.’
Katsumi rubbed his head in frustration.
He had become a father.
“Katsumi!
Come downstairs in five minutes if you don’t want me to come up there.”
A familiar yell came from downstairs.
“Coming!
Hey, Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
We’ll go fight some folks in a card shop later, okay?”
‘Card shop?’
“A place with lots of cards and people who like to cardfight.”
‘SKREEEE.’
Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s spirit screeched in excitement.
Katsumi ran down the stairs while trying his best to tolerate the screech.
‘Father.’
“What?”
‘Will there be dragons there?’
“Could be.
Could be not.”
‘Warriors?’
“Other than the cards, there are no warrior.”
The spirit became quiet with gloom.
The bond between him and the spirit was strangely strong.
“Katsumi, who are you talking to?”
His mother’s voice came again.
‘Oh crap!’
“No one in particular.
Just talking to myself.”
“Hurry up!
School is not going to wait for you.”
“Aye!”
‘Father.’
“What…”
Katsumi whispered to his card.
‘Why do human consume plant matter in the morning?’
“For health.”
“What are you whispering Katsumi?”
Truly.
Evading the sixth sense of a mother is impossible.
“Nothing.”
“You seem distracted all morning?
Did something happen yesterday?”
Katsumi’s mother expressed her worry for her eccentric son.
Lacking an obvious playmate and keeping to himself all the time, she feared her son might go astray.
“It was nothing.
Just thinking about Vanguard.”
She became thoughtful for a moment.
“Did you find Vanguard that much interesting?
I thought it would be an obstacle for your road to success.”
Remembering the day her little boy declared that he would become a billionaire, she decided to tease him.
*Cough
Katsumi blushed slightly at that memory.
He didn’t think she would remember it.
“A little bit of fun wouldn’t hurt me.”
‘Fighting?’
“Different kind of fun.”
Katsumi gobbled down the food and quickly ran for the front door.
“I am off, Mom!”
“Don’t get lost on the way.”
“Phew.
Finally free.”
Katsumi had hit the road after escaping the confines of his home.
‘Father.
Are we going to the battlefield?’
“Battlefield?
Mm…you could say that.”
As Katsumi walked down the road, he talked with his companion.
The strangeness of the battlefield and the valorous encounters he had faced.
While they slowly crept near the kindergarten building, a figure stalked Katsumi.
‘Father.’
“What?”
‘There is someone following you.’
“Huh.”
Katsumi scratched his head and turned around, looking for the stalking.
Nobody behind the pile of boxes, the road was empty and the pole had a tuft of blue hair.
“Blue hair!”
The pole really had a tuft of blue hair.
More specifically, a kid with blue hair was hiding behind the pole.
Scratching his head more strongly, Katsumi decided to call the kid out.
“Aye!
The one with blue hair.”
“Eek!”
The kid hid himself more.
Not responding to Katsumi’s call.
“Ya know I can see you behind the pole.”
This time the kid peeked his head out but went back behind the pole when he found Katsumi staring at him.
“Oh man…”
Katsumi’s head started to ache a little.
“Aye!
If you wanna hide behind the pole, you can.
Just don’t follow me, Okay?
I am leaving.”
Katsumi slowly stepped away from there.
One step.
No reaction.
Two steps.
No reaction.
Three steps…
“Wait!”
The kid came out of his hiding place and ran straight for him, stopping just a bit away.
Katsumi took a good look at the kid.
Blue hair, timid body language and wearing his kindergarten uniform.
“Are you someone I know?”
Katsumi asked curiously.
He didn’t recall knowing…anybody in his kindergarten.
“Mm…”
The kid fidgeted around with his eyes darting here and there.
‘Comrade?’
“No.”
The kid seemed to have got her courage.
“I-I am Sendou Aika…”
“Aika?”
A unfamiliar name.
“Why are you following me?”
“Because I wanted friends…”
This time katsumi was stunned.
Friends?
Too be honest he didn’t have one either.
And from the looks of it…she didn’t have either.
“Wait!
You are a girl, Aika?”
“Hm-mm.”
She blushed slightly and nodded quickly.
“Ah!
But why be friends with me?”
Katsumi asked a genuine question that bugged him.
He didn’t look like a ideal friend type.
“Because…you look lonely.”
‘Ow!’
A imaginary arrow pierced Katsumi heart.
He thought he looked cool or something that’s why someone wanted to be friends with him.
‘Father is a lone dragon.’
“I am not a dragon.”
‘Lone human.’
“…”
Katsumi remained silent.
“Wh-who are you talking to?”
Aika asked a question.
“Talking to myself.”
“O-okay…”
The two stood there facing each other for a good moment.
Katsumi didn’t know what to do.
It was as if he was forgetting something important.
“Shouldn’t we go to kindergarten?”
“Oh Yeah!
I totally forgot.”
A quick reminder from his new friend brought him out of his confusion.
“Let’s go!
We will be late and that old hag will show her true ugly face.”
Katsumi grabbed the hand of his new friend and started dragging her to their kindergarten, in the hopes of them being not late.
Aika was a little overwhelmed by the intimate gesture and blushed slightly.
But her face held a genuine smile as she was led along by Katsumi.