"Astral, where'd you put my duel disk!?" Yuma screamed from the attic room as he hastily got dressed in his school uniform.

Astral, who was sitting on his bed under the attic room and arranging his own deck, rolled his dual-colored eyes. He was twelve years old and practically a genius at his age. "I didn't put them anywhere, Yuma. Ask Akari, maybe she knows. You were with her last time you had it."

Yuma, age 13, swung down the rope right by the steps that led to his room and took off running as soon as his feet hit the ground. Astral watched him with a smile and a shake of his head. He himself didn't attend the school Yuma had to go to (by law), so he never experienced the scrambling struggle of sleeping through the alarm and almost being late. For Yuma, that was a constant reality. It didn't help that Astral seemed incapable of yelling into his ear or shaking him. Heck, it would help if Astral just dumped him on the floor to wake him up! For some reason, he didn't.

Astral looked at the picture of Mirai and Kazuma that hung on the wall and asked them to help Yuma get through the day from wherever they were. They disappeared when he and Yuma were still young. When he closed his eyes, Astral could still remember waking up one morning with a cold and going to his parents' room only to find them missing. Worse yet, the bed sheets were crumpled and messily spread on the bed, as if there was a struggle and they lost. He still heard himself screaming and crying until everyone in the house came running to see what was wrong. His vision went red as soon as he started freaking out.

Or was that blood? It was still a mystery.

There had been a month-long search from their family and Yuma's small group of friends, but it was only a week-long search with the police involved. It apparently only took a week until the police gave up. 

Astral snapped out of his dream-like daze when he heard Yuma calling that he was leaving. The alien flew downstairs and gave Yuma a hug as usual, and as usual, the boy returned the gesture even though he was running late. "Be careful," he whispered in his ear as usual. He always had a feeling that Yuma was going to be taken from him in one form or another ever since Kazuma and Mirai disappeared.

"Don't worry, I will," Yuma replied. They broke away, and Astral was left watching as he raced against the clock to get to school.

"He's gonna get in big trouble one day," Akari, now a grown woman, groaned from her place at the doorway. She was wearing her slick biker gear; she tended to head to work by motorcycle.

"He won't," Astral replied calmly. "He's fast. By the way, did you find his duel disk?"

"Yeah, he left it on my desk." She walked past him with her biking gear on. "Well, I'm gonna be chasing after a scoop. Take care of Grandma, will you?"

"I will."

With that, the young woman tore through the streets. Astral closed the door and got started with the chores.

~.~.~

Yuma slid into his seat, huffing and puffing, just as the bell rang and the teacher closed the door. Kotori gave him the usual "you just made it" look, which was met with a grin. Kotori opened her mouth to speak, but the teacher called class in session before she could say what she wanted to say.

Throughout class, Yuma couldn't help but notice the worried look on Kotori's face and Tetsuo's empty seat. While the teacher's back was turned, the boy quickly wrote a note and passed it to her.

"Something wrong?"

Kotori quickly looked up to see if the teacher was watching. He wasn't. She quickly scribbled her reply.

"Tetsuo's sister called this morning and said he was missing."

Yuma read the note, his eyes widening. He didn't remember receiving a call. Maybe he missed it.

"Tell me more on break."

Kotori nodded. The two of them spent until lunch worrying and wondering what was happening. When it was finally time, they couldn't get out of the room fast enough. They met on the roof to eat their lunch and talk in private.

Yuma checked his D-gazer and was dismayed to find he did have several missed calls from Tetsuo's D-gazer. "He really went missing?"

"That's what she told me," Kotori replied. She didn't touch her food at all. "She said that it was like someone fought him in his own room. Everything was a mess, like they were hitting the walls."

He shoved his D-gazer into his pocket, reminded of when Astral was screaming upon seeing their parents gone. "That sounds like how my parent's room looked."

"Think it was the same person?"

"I think so. And I'm not sure we'll be able to find them." A determined look crossed his face. "But we're not going to give up looking. He's our friend; we have to try."

Kotori smiled and nodded. That's what she liked about Yuma; he didn't give up on anything even when it seemed hopeless. "Right!" 

~.~.~

When the school day was over, Astral was there to meet them at the entrance as usual. By the time Yuma and Kotori arrived at the entrance, they found their friend conversing with a shy-looking, feline-like girl as naturally as if they were close friends who knew each other for a long time. As soon as she looked over, though, she immediately blushed and looked away.

"Hey Astral!" Yuma called. "Found someone new?"

"Hello, Yuma," he responded. "This is Cathy."

"H-hi," she whispered shyly. "Um..."

Yuma smiled. "I'm Yuma, and this is my friend Kotori! I'm sure you met Astral."

"U-um...yeah."

"Would you like to come over?" Astral asked gently. "I'm sure Akari and Haru would enjoy having you."

"Actually, we have someone we need to visit," Kotori said somberly. "Tetsuo went missing, and we need to see if we can find him."

Astral's blood instantly ran cold. What had the room looked like, he wondered. Did it contain the same violent scene as before? He stared off into space before nodding slowly. "We need to find him. Where do we look, though?"

"There must have been a trail left," Kotori offered.

"There were none with our parents, Kotori."

"Then we look everywhere," Yuma said. "Cathy, can you help?"

Cathy immediately nodded. "I'll help any way I can!"

"Great! Astral, you and I will look together. Cathy and Kotori, you look together. We'll meet together in two hours."

The three nodded, and the quartet split up into pairs. Yuma and Astral went back to Tetsuo's house to see if there was any kind of trail, even though they knew there would be none. However, this time, there was. It wasn't one that could be seen, though, or else Yuma would have seen it. Instead, Astral felt some kind of trail leading from here to somewhere else. A sort of...tug.

"Yuma," he called. "I feel something."

Yuma, who only knew that Astral could fly when he wanted to, looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean there's some kind of trail that I feel. Should we follow it?"

"If it leads from here, then sure."

Astral nodded and started leading the way, feeling something familiar about the path they were taking. Yuma noticed that concentrated look on his brother's face and questioned him about it.

"Something wrong, Astral?"

Astral shook his head. "I just feel like I've taken this path before. It's very strange..."

Yuma furrowed his brow, but he couldn't fathom why Astral would get this feeling. Maybe it was just a sense of deja vu. Yeah, that had to be it! It happened to people all the time, after all! What else could it be?

The trail suddenly ended, pulling Yuma out of his thoughts. He noticed his brother looking down at the ground with confused eyes, so he followed his gaze and saw a black card with stars around the border. Astral picked it up carefully, holding it so he and Yuma could both read it. Aside from the Number, though, which was 25, Yuma found it absolutely unreadable! Astral, though, seemed to be reading it.

"What is this...?" he muttered under his breath. Before he could examine it further, it was quickly absorbed into his body. A small whisper resonated in his ears as his eyes widened.

Pretend... Give away nothing...