A Heart to Duel For; Yu-Gi-Oh! Protagonists x Reader

Chapter 19: Forgetting Faces

The boy's eyes widened in shock, startled. His smile vanished and he hurried his steps up to me. "What? That's not poss—are you sure you don't know me? It's me, Yusei." His voice held worry and a sense of urgency in it.

I looked at him with equally wide eyes, unable to respond. I shook my head. "I-I'm sorry. I don't know who you are," I managed to say, freaked out at the fact this person knew who I was.

"But how?" The boy asked so sorrowfully my cheeks burned with shame while guilt gnawed at my stomach. Should I know who he is? If so, why couldn't I remember?

"E-excuse me," I said, and quickly grabbed another glass of punch to busy myself and walked away so I wouldn't have to see his forlorn face. My thoughts raced as I kept walking, my pace brisk.

Who was that guy? And how did he know me? The more I thought about it though, the more his face seemed familiar. Maybe in a dream? Or maybe I passed him on the street once upon a time and forgot. I couldn't be sure.

I stopped and realized I had made it all the way to the corner of the party room on the opposite side of the refreshment table. A lone person with a bob of green and red hair was sitting at one of the tables, his eyes downcast and shoulders slumped.

That's Yuya, I remembered. But why is he so sad?

I could try to cheer him up. That would also get me away from the other guy if he tried to come up to me again. I walked over to the table without trying to spook him and said with a smile, "Hi Yuya. How are you?"

He looked up at me and for a split moment I saw the despair on his face before he quickly masked it with a forced smile. "O-oh, I'm fine!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," he said immediately. But then he paused to look back down at the table and sighed. "Okay . . . no."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked gently, not wanting to sound pushy. I remembered I was still holding the glass of punch and offered it to him. "Oh yeah, do you want some punch? I didn't drink from it."

"Yeah, thanks," he said gratefully, and I passed it to him before slipping into the seat across from him. He took a drink and set the empty glass down, staring at it as he turned it in his hand. "Sorry, I just. . . I invited my brothers to come tonight but they couldn't make it. But I guess that's for the best since I didn't actually win anything at the tournament." He chuckled and scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry they couldn't come to see you," I said. "But you were still really good last week. You summoned one of your best monsters on your first turn!"

He just shrugged. "I guess so. But everyone else's monsters were cooler. Like Takeru's Borrelsword Dragon and your Soldier of Chaos."

"You were the only person playing pendulums though," I insisted. "The rest of us used some of the same type of special summoning but your deck was the most unique. Me, Takeru and Yusaku used Link summoning. And I had XYZ monsters like Yuma did."

"I guess you have a point," Yuya said hesitantly. Well that was a start. At least he seemed to be believing me.

I was about to say something about his duel but then suddenly my thoughts hit a blank wall. Who did he duel against? Was it Yugi? No, that wasn't right. Yugi dueled Yusaku and Yusaku won. Why couldn't I remember? I closed my eyes and tried to recall what happened during the first duel of the tournament. Yuya had summoned Odd Eyes Absolute Dragon before ending his turn. All I could remember after that was seeing flashes of white and blue.

"(Y/n). . .? (Y/n)!" My ears finally registered Yuya saying my name and I opened my eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asked me, looking at me with a worried expression.

I nodded slightly and gave him a small reassuring smile. "Yeah, sorry about that. I was just trying to remember something. I've got a pretty bad memory," I admitted sheepishly, but as I said those words, a wave of uneasiness settled over me but it disappeared in the next instant.

Yuya smiled and chuckled. "My brother Yugo is like that too. I think you'd get along great with him. If he was here I mean."

"I think so too." I smiled at him. Yuya was really lucky to have siblings he cared about. "How many brothers do you have?" I asked carefully, hoping I wouldn't make him upset by asking about his family.

"Three," he answered. "Yugo, Yuri and Yuto. I'm the youngest and Yuto is the oldest. He's going to college next year and he wants to be a teacher and open a school like our dad did, but for orphans and poor kids."

"That's great!" I said. His older brother must be a really kind person, and I told him just that. Yuya smiled, a genuine one this time. "What about you?" I asked. "Do you know what you want to do when you're older too?"

"I still want to be a Dueltainer like Dad was," he told me, his crimson eyes shining. "It's been my dream since I was little and it's the only thing I'm really passionate about."

"You're gonna be an amazing Dueltainer," I said honestly. I believed Yuya could achieve his dream. "I wouldn't be surprised if you became the number one Dueltainer in the world!"

His face lit up and he beamed. "Thanks (Y/n). It means a lot. And thanks for making me feel better."

"You're welcome Yuya."

The music the DJ was playing suddenly shifted and a hyped up pop song began to play. Yuya perked up as the song came on and began nodding his head to the beat. "I love this song!" He said. He looked back at me almost shyly, a light blush on his cheeks. "Would you. . . like to dance with me?"

I smiled in embarrassment at the sudden invitation. Sure!"

Eagerly, he got up and took my hand to lead me to the flashing dance floor and we began to dance, nothing but smiles on our faces for the rest of the night.