longingfreesia | [Story] Haunted Memories

Haunted Memories

Part 2: Shared Pain

Nights of terror. Remembering things she didn't want to remember. That her home was destroyed by an army, rather than an earthquake. That she lost her parents and friends.
That was difficult in itself.
But then she remembered other things. The fear that she lost the only family she had left, the Tsukumos. How that broke her emotionally and mentally. The intense training. The feeling of emptiness... numbness... and revenge. The feeling of wanting to destroy the very thing that destroyed her. The feeling of needing revenge over her own life.
All of this was like she was just a puppet, to a man who was controlling her every move...

Gasping and waking up, it took a moment for Kotori to come back to reality, to the dark calm of the room she shared with Yuma. Well dark, except for the butterflies that were hanging around the room, shining with light energy.
Her powers had started to become a bit unpredictable over the last few weeks, since watching Yuya's duel with Reira. She'd gradually began having nightmares of things that she eventually realised were long lost memories that were coming back to her. She'd began to remember things, like what truly happened to her home and what she went through, but that was nothing compared to other memories. Like the memories of Mr. Heartland, how he was her biological father and where her powers were inherited from, but also how he manipulated and used her.

Looking over to the other side of the bed, Yuma was snoring softly, indicating that she'd thankfully not woken him up. Carefully, she left the bed and got dressed, before walking into the kitchen. Despite how tired she felt from the lack of sleep over the last few weeks, she didn't really feel like going back to sleep.
Splashing water on her face, she gave out a sigh, placing her face in her hands. Repeatedly she told herself that these memories were just that. Memories.
But it didn't seem to help.

At the kitchen door, a small face peered into the room, before it left and headed for the bedroom. Once inside, it leapt up onto the bed and began bouncing on Yuma in order to wake him up.

"Kuri...! Kuri...!"

Yuma flailed at the rude awakening, not too happy with it.

"Argh, Rainbow Kuriboh, what are you doing!? I'm trying to sleep!!"

The little monster protested at him, before going to Kotori's side of the bed and bouncing up and down there, alerting Yuma to the fact she wasn't next to him.
Yuma glanced around the room and quickly noticed the light energy butterflies hanging in the room, that were quickly disappearing. With that he jumped out of bed and followed Rainbow Kuriboh to the kitchen. When he entered the room, he saw Kotori stood over the sink with her face in her hands, looking troubled.

"Kotori? Sweet? Is everything okay?"

Kotori's head snapped up with a panicked expression, before she tried, poorly, to hide it.

"E-everything is fine. I just needed to get a drink. Sorry if I woke you."

"Nah. Rainbow Kuriboh was the one who woke me up. It seemed super worried." Yuma frowned a little. "Are you sure everything is okay? Cos, we can talk--"

"Everything is fine, Yuma."

Yuma didn't understand why she was being so defensive. Kotori often stressed to him that talking was an important thing to do and often reassured him that if he needed to talk to her about something, he could and shouldn't be worried about it.
It was obvious something was bothering her. It had been obvious for a while, but she was still refusing to talk about it. He'd also noticed the small accidents she seemed to be having with her powers, that she often tried to cover up.

"Look. I can see something's bothering you. I've noticed it for a while but I didn't wanna, y'know, push it, but something is completely eating you up."

"I said I'm fine."

"You're not fine, Kotori! Just talk to me, please!"

"I'm FINE!"

"Kotori! We need to tal--"

"I said NO!"

Before she knew it, she flailed her arm in protest and accidentally hit Yuma with her telekinetic power, sending him flying through the open doorway of the kitchen and into a wall. Stunned from the impact, Yuma fell to the floor as Kotori covered her mouth with her hands in shock.
As Rainbow Kuriboh flew over to Yuma to check on him, Kotori panicked and ran to the door. Grabbing her coat and quickly slipping her shoes on, she fled the apartment into the night.

----

It had been two days since Yuto had fled his home in Maiami City and he had spent the entire time wandering the streets of Domino City in a complete daze. During the day, he hid in alleyways away from the hustle and bustle of the streets. Anyone who spotted him, just assumed he was homeless and paid him little attention. During the night, he'd move through the streets, searching for something he couldn't remember and hiding from a danger that didn't exist.
He could barely tell what was real and what was in his mind anymore.

----

Breathing heavily, Kotori ended up coming to a stop when she reached the Domino City Plaza. She didn't know why she'd ran there, but since it was the early hours of the morning, the area was empty.

Slowly she walked over to the centre area and sat on a wall, burying her head in her hands, regretting what had just happened. She didn't know if she'd hurt Yuma and instead of checking on him to make sure he was okay, she ran off.
All because she didn't want to accept these memories she'd been experiencing as real.

Suddenly, she heard movement behind her. She got up quickly and spun around to see someone dressed in dark clothing stumbling into the plaza area.
She watched them warily, figuring it was probably a drunk salary-man or something, but she was ready to throw them across the plaza if they tried anything. Then, the figure just seemed to collapse to the ground.

Kotori began to approach the figure carefully, squinting her eyes a little in an attempt to see more clearly through the dark. Once she was a few feet away, her eyes widened as she began to recognise who this person was.

"Yuto...?"

Upon hearing his name, Yuto lifted his head slightly to try and look up at who had spoke, but his vision was too blurred to make them out. Groaning, he started to try and pick himself up off the floor, but was having difficulty in doing so.
Not knowing who it was in front of him and his mind assuming it was an enemy, he tried to step forward and turn on his duel disk, but he simply fell again.
This time, Kotori was able to catch him.

"Yuto. It's Kotori. Let me help."

She moved one of Yuto's arms around her shoulders as she attempted to support him. It was difficult, but eventually they were able to move over to the wall where she sat Yuto down.

"I'll go and get you some water. Stay there, okay?"

Quickly moving over to a nearby vending machine, she fished around in her coat pocket, pulling out some change and inserting it in the slot. After selecting the drink and collecting it, she moved back over to Yuto, opening it and giving it to him, before crouching down before him.

"Drink it, alright?"

Yuto drank the water from the bottle quickly and before she knew it, most of the contents had gone.
He probably hadn't drank anything for the last few days and it showed. Now they were in the light of the street lamps, she could see just how worn down and exhausted he looked.

"Yuto... why are you wandering around here at 3am?"

It took him a moment to really process what she said, but eventually responded.
"Guess I could ask you the same thing."

Kotori paused in a stunned silence, before giving out a small sigh. "You got me." Slowly she stood up and moved to sit beside him. Glancing over, she noted that the outfit he was wearing wasn't exactly something that would protect him from the cold. Had he been wandering around Domino the last few days like that? He must have been freezing.

"Yuya is worried about you. He's been looking for you everywhere. We all have."

Yuto flinched at that, but didn't look at Kotori, or respond, but the pain she could see on his face told her all she really needed.
After another moment of silence, she spoke again.

"It's the dreams.... right?"

That got Yuto to quickly look up at her with a questioning look, which soon turned to realisation, before giving her a small nod.

"You too?"

"Yeah." she responded. "They've been getting more intense with each new memory that returns to me. The Heartland attack... losing my parents... my fear over it happening again... and... Mr. Heartland..."

She paused slightly as she mentioned that name, before she wrapped her arms around herself in a half self hug.
Yuto could remember Mr. Heartland. The man who adopted him, but barely raised him. The man who used him as nothing more than a publicity stunt... but he'd also used Kotori, his biological daughter, by breaking her and training her as a weapon to use against Academia, something that he could tell was the most uncomfortable part of her returning memories.
But they'd fought against him together and won, allowing them both freedom from him, but for Kotori, the scars he left were still there.

"I just keep going over and over the things in my head. Everything that happened. Especially... what he did and what he made me do. How I almost used the powers I inherited from him and the dueling knowledge he taught me to..." she broke off, shrinking down slightly. "...I've been so torn up over it... over the guilt and shame of what I felt back then, that I haven't really been able to rest right and because of that I... kind of snapped at Yuma when he wanted to talk about it and ran out of the apartment without thinking, but not before I accidentally threw him into a wall."

Yuto listened silently as she continued. "I'm just... scared. Scared to admit these memories are true. Scared that maybe I'll just turn out like him. That somehow I'll revert back to that state he put me in.
I'm so... ashamed... of how I felt and how easily he was able to break my will."

There was silence for a moment, before Yuto finally spoke.
"You aren't him. The fact that you feel shame proves you aren't like him, though it's something you shouldn't have to feel ashamed of. He was the one who used you. Just like he used me.
But now, you have the freedom to choose what to do with what he taught you."

Kotori gave him a small nod. It helped to hear someone tell her that she wasn't like him and that she was free from him now, but the memories still stung.
"What about you? You look like you've really been struggling."

Yuto took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I've been having...flashbacks...nightmares... My whole head just feels it's in a mess. I remember two lives and I have no idea which is true. I remember losing my home and fighting in Heartland against Academia to survive.
Though now, instead of using that adrenaline to fight, I'm just... running, but I have no idea what from or where to. I don't know where I belong.
I have no idea even who I am. Yuto? Zarc? A demon? A fragment?"
He let out a tired sigh. None of this was making sense, so he was sure Kotori wouldn't understand.

Slowly, Kotori placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"I think you're running because maybe your subconscious knows on some level there is nothing to fight against, despite your memories telling you otherwise.
You... never had the chance to really process all the things that happened to you, did you? You just had to keep fighting, even outside of Heartland. You just kept on fighting. But now you've regained memories all at once of something you never learned to come to terms with.
You need to give yourself the time and the care in order to do that... as do I."

"But you need to remember something. No matter what ... you now have a family that loves you, Yuto. I think that's what you need to focus on, rather than the past you're trying to run from.
You are no longer in Heartland. You are no longer bound by Zarc's fate.
But you do have them."

Yuto's eyes widened a little as he heard her words. He'd been so focused on the battle in his head, he'd not really appreciated what he had now.
A family. Something he'd never really had in those returning memories. He began to wonder if it was even important if his memories of this family were real or not.
He had it now and he'd been happier with them.

Suddenly, the two of them heard a voice calling out through the streets.

"Kotori! Kotori!"

Kotori smiled in relief a little and stood up as Yuma came into view. As soon as he saw her, his face lit up and he ran over to her, giving her a huge hug when he did.

"There you are!! I was super worried! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, Yuma. I'm fine. Are you okay? I really didn't mean to throw you into the wall."

"Don't worry about it, Kotori! I'm just glad I found you! Oh---"

Yuma broke the hug with Kotori and glanced over at Yuto sat on the wall, only just noticing him there. "Oh man, you found Yuto! That's great! We've been super worried about you, man!"

Yuto, feeling a little awkward with the couple's reunion, shuffled uncomfortable where he was sat, getting ready to leave. "I should go."

"Ah, no, no, wait." Yuma protested. "You look like you've had a super rough time. You can stay at our place tonight, if you'd like! Sis and granny have been away, so we have a spare room you can crash in for the night."

"Yuma's right. You should stay with us to get some rest and get out of the cold."

Getting up from where he was sat, Yuto shook his head. "No. It's fine. I shouldn't impos--"

Suddenly, everything around Yuto began spinning. He stumbled, trying to keep his footing, but he fell forward and into darkness...

"Whoa!" Yuma was quick to catch Yuto as he passed out. "Looks like you don't have much choice in it now, bud."

Carefully, Yuma lifted Yuto onto his back before looking over at Kotori. "Let's get him back to our place!"

----

Once they had gotten back to their apartment, the two of them set up a futon in their spare room and made sure Yuto was comfortable there before switching off the light and leaving the room, closing the door behind them.

"I really hope he'll be okay." Kotori pondered, with worry in her voice.

"Yeah, me too." Yuma added on. He then looked over at Kotori. "Are you really alright?"

Kotori looked up at him and gave him a small nod. "I'll be alright. We can talk tomorrow. Right now we should contact Yuya and let him know Yuto is here."

"Alright. I'll contact him."

Yuma gave Kotori a small kiss on the head, before leaving to find his D-Pad to contact Yuya.

[Story] Haunted Memories - Part 2 : Shared Pain