Title: Hope Versus Fear
Characters: Samejima||Ship: Yubel x Juudai (alluded to)
Word Count: 500||Chapters: 1/1
Challenges: Diversity Writing Challenge, A66, one character's view of something or someplace; GX Flash Bingo, #070, fracture
Notes: This takes place in episode 155. To be precise, the moment when Samejima's window glass cracked due to the spiralling effect of Super Fusion being activated. There are also little bits of my headcanons sprinkled in here.
Summary: Samejima had much to do while Juudai and his friends were in Dark World. Most of it having to do with the people who were away in Dark World. And then his window cracks...

He'd been busy trying to sort out what to do about the transfer students when they returned – and everyone else, but he had to think about them as well. The Garams were not happy over their eldest son and – apparently – his bodyguard vanishing. The Cooks seemed to accept matters more or less philosophically, and the O'Briens sent a quiet message to the effect that their son would return soon, they had faith in him.

What he also had to deal with was what other people wanted: the Marufujis weren't thrilled about both their sons vanishing, and the Tenjoins messaged him every day about their children.

In what had to be the most surprising move of all, Manjoume Chosaku and Manjoume Shouji had arrived on the island a week or two after Juudai and his friends vanished, and continued to run their affairs from the room their younger brother set up as his own. When they weren't working, they tracked around the island in a vain search for their brother.

Everyone's parents had said something or other on the matter, even if only to offer assurance that their child or children would return sooner or later.

Almost everyone.

There wasn't any word from the Andersons, because Johan Anderson was the only one of his family – at least of the non-spirit variety. He lived on his own, a legally emancipated minor for the last year of his life, and supported himself with money from tournaments and street duels.

Nor had the Yuukis said anything. He'd known the family for some time, so he'd called personally to let them know what happened.

Yuuki Shinobu answered the phone. He'd heard everything Samejima had to say on the subject, thanked Samejima for letting them know, and hung up.

He'd told them of Yubel's return. That was really all he should've said and they would've known everything they needed to.

He wanted Juudai to help Yubel, to extend the hand that he'd held out to others, to Kagemaru, to Saiou, to anyone who'd raged and been hurt.

He wanted Juudai to know who he was.

The window above cracked. Samejima turned to look at it, a strange fear racing through him mated to a hope that he'd barely begun to understand before. Hope and fear: centered on Juudai and Yubel both.

Hope that somehow, Juudai remembered everything, and that he found what he needed to do in order to heal Yubel's soul.

Fear that somehow he hadn't, that there wasn't any way to repair all of this, and the world would feel the results. All the worlds would feel the results if everything he'd suspected about Juudai turned out to be true.

The window cracked and Samejima didn't know what happened after that, not until Marufuji Shou stood in his office and told what he'd seen, not until Yuuki Juudai stood there with Yubel safe in his heart and soul.

Hope fought against fear and after far longer than Samejima cared to think about, hope won.

The End

Notes: Samejima always did know more than he should have. I have no doubts at all that he knew about Juudai being Haou from the very beginning.