Astral floated around the nighttime city with the 39 card in his hand. He looked around warily in case the being that was killing people was out and about.

"Don't be nervous," the voice from the card chastised. "Nothing will come out and attack. The soul sucker won't come out tonight."

Astral couldn't help but snort and snicker at the name the voice gave to the murderer. "Soul sucker? I doubt someone who stabs people sucks their souls."

"Oh, but he does. That's what he really does. Yes, he kills them, but not in the way you were believing."

"Oh yeah? Then explain the blood. And the places that were stabbed were lethal areas. He was obviously aiming for the kill."

"In truth, anywhere would have resulted in death. He's a soul sucker, as I've said before."

Astral rolled his eyes but gave the voice the benefit of the doubt. "Very well. But how do I know this 'soul sucker' won't come out tonight?"

"He won't," the voice assured and left it at that. Astral tried to prod him for more information, but the being within the card remained silent.

With a sigh, Astral continued to locate cards.

Tracking them down was easy; the card he was holding took care of that. Gathering them was the hard part. According to the news, a vast amount of people were killed during the soul sucker's spree, and no more was it painfully obvious than this moment. Even though the sites where the bodies once laid were cleaned and free of blood, Astral could still sense their presences, like ghosts that could not cross over. Every time he gathered a card, he could feel the exhilaration of the kill before memories flooded in. They were now only conversations while his vision remained dark, as though he couldn't open his eyes but could hear everything. It was frightening how the familiar voice was talking about a mission that he had to fulfill even though he wasn't even a year old.

What scared him more than the memories was the shivering joy he felt with each gathered card.

By midnight, Astral was too tired to continue. Even though the voice kept pushing him to keep going, he stubbornly refused and plopped to the ground with his arms crossed, something he's seen Yuma do on many occasions, and something he always thought was immature. Well, he was tired and needed sleep, so Astral felt justified in his childish act.

"Stop being childish," the voice scolded. "Your mission is something that you must remember!"

Astral puffed out his cheeks and huffed. "Telling me that won't make me change my mind about going back home. If you want me to continue on this silly quest, I suggest you let me rest. Besides, what's so important about this mission? All I've heard about it from my memories is that it's 'important' and 'necessary for our world,' but I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. I don't even know the world I'm supposed to be doing it for. In any case, this is my home, not the other world I keep hearing about in the memories. Why should I care about it?"

The voice audibly sighed. "I wish I could tell you, but it's something you need to gather from the cards. If I tell you, you'll just refuse to do it."

Astral's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And why's that? Is it something bad?"

"Of course not. Considering how you're acting now, though, I highly doubt you'll be very eager to do it. Not until you remember the details. If you must be childish about it, though, you may go to sleep. We'll continue this tomorrow night."

A bit irritated at that comment, Astral got up and walked back home to sleep.

~.~.~

Yuma woke up in the morning with a headache. The last thing he remembered was checking up on Astral and asking him what was on his mind, and then there was nothing. Did he pass out? It was only afternoon when that happened; there was no way he could been so tired he slept until morning! It felt wrong...

He leaped off his bed and slid down the rope to go into Astral's room, where his alien brother was sleeping soundly. It was odd for him to sleep in, but it was still the weekend, so Yuma thought nothing of it. He started shaking Astral slightly to wake him up and ask him what happened.

Astral groaned and covered his eyes with the pillow. Yuma furrowed his brow; his brother didn't usually act like this unless he was sick, and he wasn't showing signs of sickness, though the dark rings around his eyes were probably a sign that he wasn't getting enough sleep. So, Yuma let him sleep and went down to see if breakfast was ready. Akari was cooking this morning. She also looked tired, but this was at least normal for her.

"Morning, sis," Yuma greeted, stretching the tiredness away. 

"Morning Yuma," Akari replied absently. "Something wrong? You look worried."

"Astral is sleeping in, but he looks tired," Yuma replied. "Think something's wrong with him?"

"Maybe he was just staying up last night. He's still a teenager, no matter how much more mature he seems than you." Akari grinned, chuckling at Yuma's reaction to her teasing. "Anyway, just let him sleep. He'll be up in a minute."

Yuma nodded, but the uneasiness never left. He felt like Astral wanted to tell him something, but he didn't know what.

Don't think about it, he told himself. It must be nothing.

And for some reason, that thought comforted him.

~.~.~

"Good morning sleepyhead!" Yuma called as his brother came down near the afternoon.

Astral smiled sleepily and waved back. The absorption from last night drained his batteries more than he thought, so he ended up sleeping in more than he thought. "Good morning Yuma. Where's Akari?"

"She went out to chase a scoop." The boy got up and grabbed a covered plate for Astral. "Here, she made breakfast. You'd better eat up, we don't want you getting sick." Yuma smiled, but the smile didn't exactly reach his eyes anymore. Not to Astral, at least.

Astral took the plate and smiled back warily. The automatic concern was unnerving... "Thank you, Yuma."

"No problem!" With that, Yuma headed back to the living room to watch TV.

You have that effect on people.

The memory of those words lingered in Astral's head, wracking his nerves and making him tense.

What is going on...?