Author's note: Well now that I'm finally on my summer vacation, that means more free time on fanfiction. And because I've watched the recent episode of Yugioh Arc v (episode 104 to be precise), I was lead to create this one-shot.

Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon looks so beautiful...

*shakes head out of thought* Anyway, this one-shot is kinda based off on the Super Sentai fanfiction written by Etcetera Kit, titled Synthesis but I somehow managed to put it into my own twist into the Arc V version of this story. Of course, this would take place during the invasion of Heartland City. Few things you need to know of first...

Sempai: a Japanese word for upperclassmen or to those who are older than you

kouhai: a Japanese word for protege or those who are younger than you...most of the time.

Nakama: A Japanese word for a friend or a comrade.

That will be all for now. And I apologized if any of characters here are OOC. At least I tried though. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimers: I don't own Yugioh Arc V or any of the characters here.

Triangle

It's kinda funny to think about it, but he realized that their bonds are like a triangle. The one that can help each other when in need. The one to keep them in balance...in harmony. If any of them were to disappear...well, they would just fall over, and it certainly wouldn't be the same.

That's how Yuto would always view their friendships. At first, he didn't know how he came up with the thought like that. Maybe it was due to the fact that he, Shun, and Ruri were always so close together since they were kids and would hang out a lot. Just the three of them. But then he realized it was more than just that.

Ever since their once beautiful home, Heartland City, had been invaded by the soldiers from Duel Academia, the three teens have managed to look out for each other, thick and thin, and they still do after the Resistance was formed (much to their relief that they managed to find their other friends mostly from the Clover and Spade branches of the Heartland Duel School uncarded). Shun pretty much act like an older brother in the group. Of course, there's the fact that he and Ruri are actually siblings, and they do get along well, despite a few setbacks. After all, what kind of relationships is it without setbacks? To Yuto, Shun is a close friend, and almost like a brother that he never had. Neither Yuto or Shun had treat each other like how a sempai would treat his or her kouhai. They treat each as an equal. Partners in crime. Nakama.

And Ruri...well, it's obvious that she and Yuto are friends and he liked her. Yuto had met her through Shun, and he was comfortable being around her. He liked how she was kind to him and the others, and he liked the way she smiled. Out of all three of them, Ruri was probably the most optimistic one in the group. She was perhaps the only one, other than Tenjo Kaito (Shun's rival and the duelist they looked up to), to actually managed to put smiles on their stoic faces. There was one time when Ruri made a small complaint about how Yuto and Shun would make gloomy faces and called them "two emo birds", much to their dismays. But just thinking back to it now made Yuto laugh a little. Shun is still slightly offended about this, though.

Yuto was brought back to reality once he felt a searing pain on his right arm and started wincing a bit, biting his tongue from crying out in pain.

"Sorry Yuto. Are you okay?" Ruri asked, noticing the black-purple hair duelist wincing after she put rubbing alcohol on his wounded arm.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he replied. He almost forgotten about the wound he received during his fight from one of the Obelisk Force. Apparently, the soldier had one of his Fusion Monsters to attack Yuto during the duel, which resulted in an ugly scar on his upper arm. He had managed to get back to the camp on his own safely and have Ruri treated it for him.

The latter gave him a soft smile and continued working on his wound. "It'll still sting for a bit, but it will get better soon," Ruri reassured him.

Yuto silently nodded. Things have changed since the three have to survive throughout the war and fought against the soldiers from the Academia. Assuming that they were carded, they have lost their parents and some of their friends. They also lost their homes and some other places that built good memories, but at the very least, they have each other. Their bonds haven't even faltered one bit. Instead, they grew stronger. Whenever one of them was either hurt, in danger, or scared, the other would step up and help them however they can.

Speaking of being scared, Yuto started to remember how Ruri was shaken up pretty badly ever since the invasion started. For them, it took place at the duel fiend, where she and Yuto were dueling against each other just to test their strategies for the upcoming tournament, only to hear a loud explosion and saw many people, adults and children, turned into cards. The two teens managed to escape with the Academia soldiers barely on their tails. Have it not been for Shun for finding them earlier, there was no doubt that both Yuto and Ruri would've been carded.

Those memories still haunted Ruri, but she managed to put up a font for the sake of the others. After, she knew that everyone else have other serious things to worry about, and she didn't want to be a burden to them just by showing her weakness. Both Yuto and Shun knew better, though. She was still shaken up every time they lose their comrades to the Academia. And it worries them. In fact, there were times when they noticed Ruri shed tears either in her sleep or in a corner of the tent where no one would noticed her, and the two boys did what they could to comfort her.

Yuto frowned at this moment and took a glance at his female friend, who was finished putting the bandages around his arm. After placing the red scarf around his injured arm, she suggested that they should meet up with her brother and head back to their tent together, to which Yuto silently agreed and head out of the infirmary. Truthfully, he hated to see Ruri so sad like this, but who could blame her? This is something that they have seen and dealt with almost every single day, and none of them knows when will this will end. This is all the Academia's fault that they were suffering, and once they've seen what they have done, they were going to regret this sooner or later. That is...if they ever cared, Yuto thought.

As soon as they found Shun with the other Resistance members, who were coming up with some strategies to go up against the Obelisk Forces, night began to fall. The trio made their way back into their tent and pulled out their sleeping bags to the floor. Normally, Ruri would be sleeping with the other female members in the guild, but just for tonight, she decided that she wanted to sleep next to her brother and her friend, knowing that she felt safe around them. Shun agreed, but insisted that he should be sleeping in the middle between her and Yuto (although Shun considered Yuto as his best friend, he doesn't trust him enough to let him sleep next to his sister).

Ruri rolled her eyes as she watched her brother placed himself in a sleeping bag between hers and Yuto's and slowly drifted himself to sleep. Then, she glanced at Yuto, who had a worried look on his face. "Something wrong, Yuto?"

"...Nothing." he answered, "I just want to make sure you're okay."

Then, she blinked. "But...I am okay. After all, I am alive and well, aren't I?"

Another silence filled the room. Then, Yuto spoke out, "You know, Ruri, if there's something troubling you, you can always come to me or Shun. We're here for you, no matter what."

Ruri laughed and playfully patted his head, "Of course. You and nii-san always tell me that. Besides, that what nakamas are for, right?"

"I know. But I really mean it, Ruri. If there's something wrong, just tell us, and we'll help you out however we can."

Because I don't want you to suffer anymore. The two remained silent again until Yuto spoke out. "Let's turned in for the night. Shun and I have to get up early for the morning patrol tomorrow."

"...I understand," The girl nodded and got up, staring into Yuto's grey eyes with her pink ones, "Just promise me that you two will be careful tomorrow."

Before Yuto can say anything, Ruri leaned towards him and planted a small kiss on his cheek. She giggled after seeing Yuto's face going bright red and headed to her sleeping bag on the right side of Shun's. Only a few seconds later, Yuto sat on top of his sleeping bag, hand on one side of his cheek, trying to comprehend on what just happened.

As Ruri was trying to get herself to sleep, she couldn't helped but pondered what might happened tomorrow. With everything going on in the Academia invasion, you would never know what might happened next. Of course, there was no doubt that the Obelisk Force would come back and try to get them, but they would never know when will that happened. Besides, it hurt her so much that they already took away so many people in the Heartland City, including their parents and some of their friends in their Dueling School. At least, she has Shun and Yuto, so that made her feel safe a little bit. But she knew she couldn't depended on them forever. With everything they have to deal with right now, she doesn't want them to worry about her so much. She had to be strong...at least strong enough to defended herself and to protect those who she held dear to her.

Suddenly, Yuto flashed in her mind. It didn't occurred to her before, but she would sometimes wondered what her relationships with Yuto were. Sure, he's a friend to her and Shun, maybe another brother to her, but not the same kind of brother and sister relationship as with Shun. For some reason, she couldn't described it as clearly as she could. Back before the Academia invaded, some of her female friends often tease her how she and Yuto are like a couple, but the former quickly denies it, saying that there's no way that would happened. But as time changed, she realized that she would be lying to herself if she didn't wish that there would something more between them.

Then again, these things might not happened between them. For one thing, Yuto may not have a same feeling for Ruri as she did for him. Even if he did, she was afraid that if something bad were to happened between, she might risk losing their friendships, and she didn't want that. Another thing was that because of the situations they're in were so dire, there may not be a chance that either of them would pursue a loving relationships.

But she knew one thing for sure, that whatever Yuto sees in her, she'll accept it, no matter what. And whatever they're supposed to be to each other, as long as they're happy, Ruri hoped that it would last forever.

...

...And then she was gone...just like that.

...She was taken away from them...just before they know it.

...This happened not long after Yuto ended up going berserk at the Obelisk force for cornering Ruri, and nearly killed them. It took at least four people to pinned him to get him to stop, most of the members started to fear him because of that. Shun admitted that he was scared of what Yuto nearly did during that incident, but he still stay close to him, shooting dirty looks at those who were talking about that incident behind their backs as if they were gossips rumors. Then, they found out from their friend Sayaka that Ruri haven't come back after going out to fill the water jug, and the two boys went out to look for her, only to find her feathered-shaped hair clip and her duel disk on the ground as proofs that something bad has happened to her. Needless to say, they were both devastated.

Shun knelt down and and punched his fist to the ground, leaving a large dent on the cement. It was bad enough that their home was destroyed, but losing his sister made it worse. She was the only family member he had left. And whoever took her will pay dearly.

Yuto, on the other hand, tried to remained calm, but he clenched his fist to retained his anger as much as possible. He was angry that the Academia have took the most important person away from him and Shun, and he wanted so badly to wake up from this horrible dream, hoping this wasn't real, but he couldn't. However, he had a feeling that Ruri isn't gone forever just yet.

"Shun, just calm down, please!" He told his best friend, "Don't ask me how I know, but I have a feeling Ruri is still alive somewhere. We will bring her back, I swear, no matter what!"

Shun nodded in agreement, "You're right. In that case, we'll do whatever we can to find her. We'll make them pay for this!"

...There is no way they would let her go like this. That's because she too, is part of an triangle. The one that keep them together in harmony.

Author's note: And that's it for the one-shot. And of course it has to end with Ruri being kidnapped by an "evil child". Hopefully, it turned out okay at least. Truthfully, I kinda realized that Yuto's bond with Shun and Ruri are kinda like a triangle, which can symbolize as harmony and balance depending on how you see it, after watching episode 104. And I could see Shun being overprotective of his sister for obvious reasons. Hehe.

I guess that's all for now until I can get my other stories caught up. R&R, please? ;)