Squirrel98

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

School ended some time ago, but Sora and Natsuko were still laying in the same pile of grass, looking at the sky. Sora put his hands underneath his head, while Natsuko decided to take her avatar out of her pocket. She put the card next to Wolf, whose card was leaning against a rock in order to be able to see the two Commanders. Natsuko's avatar was a cute, blond girl named Ema who wore a cute, blue suit and who had her hair up into two pigtails. The two avatars easily got along. They were talking, whispering, so silent that even the two Commanders couldn't hear them. Not that Natsuko or Sora were paying attention to anything else than each other.

"It's fun to hang out with Sora. He's cool. But I hate that I have to lie to him."
"Hai. Natsuko is so sweet. I know we have to lie, but it feels wrong. Nyaaa."
"What is Natsuko's wish?"
"It's ... Nyaaa!!"

Wolf's mouth fell open out of surprise. He was silent. Speachless. Shocked. That's Natsuko's wish? A voice inside of his head told him that he needed to warn Sora and keep him away from Natsuko, but he wasn't planning to listen to the voice. Natsuko seemed to really comfort Sora. He liked being around her. She respected him and treated him well. She would only be a danger if her wish came true and that probably wasn't going to be soon.

Sora took a deep breath and turned his head in Natsuko's direction. Their lips were a couple of millimeters away from each other. They were so close, yet so far away. He came closer and closer and right on the moment that he could feel their lips touching, his phone vibrated. He pulled back, preventing the supposed to be romantic kiss that otherwise would have occurred.

Stay out of trouble? She probably heard about the punch in Haruto's face. Why would she ask him to stay out of trouble if she didn't hear it? His breathing became heavier. It wasn't up to her to decide what he could and couldn't do. "She is going to bring you some cards too? Your sister is so sweet." Wolf suddenly said, after secretly looking at the text on Sora's phone. "She probably only said it, because my bad reputation would ruin her good reputation. She only cares about her books." He tried to convince the other Commander and the two avatars, but mostly himself.

"Why does it matter? Let's go on a walk, just the two of us." She said, smiling at him. Sora nodded agreeingly. "Let's go." He said. "I hate this day." He took Wolf in one hand, so he could see where they were going, and Natsuko's hand in the other. Natsuko did the same with her avatar, Ema.

"Nyaaa!!"
"You're such a cute neko! So kawaii..."
"What's wrong, Ema?"
"Your hand is sweating."

Natsuko raised her arm in order to look at Ema. She wanted to yell at her, but was thrown off balance when Sora laughed. "You two are amazing together." Ema put her hands on her cheeks, closed her eyes, shook her head and blushed. "We are. Nyaaa." Natsuko smiled and lowered her arm. "Let's go to my house." Natsuko's parents owned a small café in the middle of town. There weren't many customers with the bad weather, which means that they had the whole place to themselves. Sora ordered a hot chocolate and Natsuko simply ordered the same thing. The two of them said across from each other holding hands. Their avatars laying on the table.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Confused. Down in the dumps. Afraid. There were a lot of words that could describe how Sora felt the moment he woke up the next day and at the same time, there were none. He had to crawl his way out of bed, to the closet to dress himself, downstairs and finally out of the door. Wolf wanted to tell him that he should eat something. He wanted to tell him that losing one time wasn't such a big deal. He wanted to tell him that he would get back at Haruto for his behaviour. However, not even a sound escaped his throat. The Avatar looked at his Commander with a sad expression on his face, not sure if Sora was planning to ever battle again.

For once, he didn't care about his friends or the girls surrounding him. He ignored all of them and when he didn't ignore them, he simply nodded yes or no without giving much of an explanation of what happened.

"I had a bad dream."
"I had a big fight at home."
"I am having a hard time keeping up with the homework."
"I am just having a bad day."
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
"I just have a cold or something."

He made up a lot of excuses, a lot of lies, to silence the others, but it didn't work. None of them believed him and they kept on pushing him to tell them what's wrong. So he went on to sit alone during the lessons and even sit alone during lunch, not that he decided to eat much of the food. Although Wolf knew that Sora couldn't answer him where normal people, the ones who aren't Commanders, could see him, but it didn't stop Wolf. "Come on, Sora-sama! Let's battle! Let's fight! Let's learn about the rules! Maybe you can ask your sister to ..." He didn't dare to finish that sentence. The moment the words 'your sister' came out of his mouth, Sora looked straight at him. If looks could kill ...

After a couple of minutes, he started to notice the crowd surrounding Rui. He didn't know if he should have been glad that she was a lot better at the game than he was or that people finally started to notice her. He didn't know if he should have been jealous or angry. But the moment that Haruto approached Rui, he knew exactly what he felt: anger. He waited for the guy to walk away from the crowd, after which he quickly ran up to him.

"You want me to bless me with a win again? That's so sweet of you." Haruto said on a polite tone, knowing that they were still in public and he couldn't afford to ruin his image.

"You know that's not what I am here for!"
"Then why are you here?" He said, playing dumb.
"I want you to stay away from my sister! I am not going to let you do to her what you did to me!"
"That wouldn't work. She is a lot better at the game than you are. She probably wouldn't fall for the same tricks."

Those last words were the last straw. He couldn't take the guy's attitude anymore. His anger took complete control over his body and he finally punched him right on his nose. That's when a lot of eyes started to direct towards the two guys. People started to talk. "I thought those two were close friends." Most people said.

The guy, usually very popular, ran away from the cafeteria. "Sora-sama, they're gone. You can stop running. Sora-sama? Sora-sama!" Wolf yelled, which finally made Sora come to a stop. He could still feel the angry looks from other students. In their eyes, Sora was the bad guy.

Sora laid down on the grass with his hands underneath his head and his gaze directed at the sky. He let out a big sigh when Wolf disturbed the silence Sora was enjoying so much. "Sora-sama! I feel a Commander nearby!" A confident girl walked towards Sora with a big smile on her face. Sora looked up to see who it was, but laid back down calmly when he recognized the girl.

"Sora-kun!" She yelled, laying down beside him. "How are you?" She said playfully.
"Natsuko-chan. Bad." He said with a soft smile on his face. Her presence was a great comfort.
"I really liked that punch. You know he's bleeding, right? It's so perfect."
"I know you can't stand him, but he used to be my best friend."
"Yeah, used to. Hey, I didn't know you were a Commander."
"I am not very good at it and I am certainly not in the mood to battle."
"That's alright."

A silence followed after those last words from Natsuko. A silence where Sora and Natsuko were laying close enough to each other for their shoulders to be touching and were both simply enjoying looking at the sky.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

On their way back home, Sora had to seek support from his sister to be able to walk. He couldn't help but keep on looking at the sleeping fellow in one of his cards. Why was he so stupid to believe Haruto? Why did he think Haruto would go easy on him? Why did he even go out to battle? He sighed deeply out of frustration. "I guess I only have one coin left, huh." He whispered, almost inaudible, but just loud enough to be heard by Rui and Lumia.

"You know what? Maybe it's better to lose this stupid game. That way, I don't have to worry about winning or losing and I've already lost most of my most precious memories anyways." He said with a sad smile on his face. He really thought he meant those words, but a little voice in his mind kept on reminding him what his wish was, how important his wish was. He couldn't handle the pressure anymore, the betrayal of his best friend and the shame of losing so badly really got to him. That's why he wanted that little voice to keep quite, why he NEEDED it to keep quite. So he kept on going.

"Who will miss me if my personality disappears? Not okaasan (mother) or otousan (father). My friends will find someone else to take my place and we haven't been close in years." The moment those last words came out of his mouth, he regretted it. He shouldn't have said those words out loud, but he did and he couldn't take them back. Well, he could, but that would be lying and he couldn't lie to his sister, could he?

"I will find another dream." He declared, not at all convinced of that statement himself. When Rui and Sora arrived at home, their parents were waiting on them. They wanted to make sure that Rui was alright, so she could go back to study, and they wanted to yell at Sora for disturbing his sister's studying. A normal person of his age would be sad and would possibly cry, maybe they would even be depressed, but Sora didn't care about their yelling. What he actually cared about, was that it was the first time in a long while that his parents were talking to him. Actually talking to him, instead of giving him some sort of command without even looking at him. He was even glad and happy to hear his parents yell. For that reason, a big smile appeared on his face, which made his parents even angrier.

"I am going to my room, okaasan, otousan." He said, completely ignoring his sister after all that had happened and not waiting for his parents to answer. He ran upstairs, towards his room, threw himself on the bed and started to cry. Wolf's card lied on the pillow, right next to Sora's head, but Wolf was still sleeping. "I guess my wish is not meant to come true after all."

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Wolf realised it was a bad move, but he couldn't go against the decision of his Commander. With fear and pain in his heart, he jumped off his platform towards the Avatar who apparently carried the name Sacchi. "We lost." He whispered. From the distance, Wolf and Sora could hear Rui's voice yelling that they shouldn't attack, but it was already too late.

"No. No, it doesn't feel good." Wolf answered Sacchi. It did feel good to hit the horrible guy, it really did, but the attack felt bittersweet knowing that they would lose big time in the next turn. Wolf was shaking out of fear. Tears were streaming down Sora's face. He really hated crying in front of others, but he couldn't help himself. However, soon after, the tears suddenly stopped as he heared his sister stand up for him.

Hearing how Rui got mad at Haruto and Sacchi for bullying her little brother felt familiar. It felt almost like he was remembering an event from their past, which caused Sora a headache. He put his hands against both sides of his head and started to groan out of pain. "Sora-sama?" Sora groaned louder and louder. "I see. That happens when you try to remember a memory that Nexus took away. Just focus on something else." Wolf's advice seem to work as Sora's headache faded away.

"Thanks, onee-chan. For everything." Sora smiled at Rui before turning back to Haruto. "You're right. There is nothing left for me to do. Turn end." He said. The second those words came out of his mouth, Haruto began the end of the battle. Sora had a hard time watching, but he owed it to Wolf. He was forced to watch his friend being beaten until one of his coins turned black. "My second most important memory will disappear, right?" Wolf nodded.

A little Rui and a little Sora were playing at the playground somewhere in their street. They were laughing, running around, teasing each other. At one point, they decided to play tag. Of course Rui was no match for Sora as he had more energy than she did. Then Haruto suddenly walked up to them. "Go away!" He heard himself yell to Haruto. What? Why would he ask his best friend to go away? Something felt wrong about the memory. Did he already know how evil of a person Haruto was? Did he push the memory away? Did he try to forget the memory. He wanted to remember so badly... but he couldn't anymore. Previously, he didn't want to, and at that point, he couldn't.

"AAAAAAAH!" Wolf yelled out of pain and with that shout, the battlefield started to break apart. Sora closed his eyes and when they opened again, he found himself still leaning against the tree. Haruto was standing close to him... and so was his sister. "Onee-chan... I'm sorry." He said tiredly. He took Wolf's card, but Wolf seemed like he was sleeping. "I hope you feel better soon. I'm sorry I'm such a horrible Commander." He put Wolf's card back into his pocket and turned to Haruto. "I thought we were best friends."

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Wolf turned around to take a look at Sora. His face showed an angry expression, which really didn't match with his usual personality. "I told you, Sora-sama! You're going to make us lose the battle!" Sora put both of his hands against his face and closed his eyes. "This can't be happening. Haruto-kun is a good person! He was always there for me. Always. Even when others weren't." Wolf sighed and actually started to feel sorry for the guy. "Sora-sama, he is just using you. Let's fight back." He could hardly finish the sentence before Haruto made two of Sora's cards disappear. "Sora-sama, please!" Wolf begged Sora.

Sora couldn't do anything but sob at the thought that the one guy he trusted the most wasn't to be trusted at all. His mind went back to all the time he spent together with Haruto. When Rui graduated primary school, his parents threw a big, fancy party to celebrate her excellent grades. One year later, Sora graduated primary school and his parents just didn't care. They didn't throw a party, they didn't even congratulate him. Sora was so sad that he ran out of the house, not being chased by anyone. His parents simply waited until he came back and his sister wasn't allowed out. But Haruto came after him. Haruto consoled him and congratulated him. Haruto told him what he wanted his parents to tell him so desperately.

That guy was gone. Maybe that guy never even existed. He didn't know anymore. He didn't know anything anymore. Was there whole friendship a joke? Had he always been using him or did the thought recently came to mind that he could? "SORA-SAMA!" Wolf yelled. The sound of his voice made Sora aware of the battle again. However, it didn't matter anymore. As he didn't know or understand anything about the game, he was forced to watch his Avatar be beaten. "WOLF! WOLF! WOLF, I'M SO SORRY!" Sora cried. He felt like the worst Commander Wolf could have gotten.

"I'm... I'm alright... Sora-sama. Don't mind me. Just play." Wolf coughed and couldn't even stand up the first two attempts, but he didn't cry. He didn't give up. He believed in his Commander. He wanted to believe in his Commander. At that point, it didn't feel like he had much of a choice. "Sora-sama... The fight is only done when you stop believing you can win." Wolf still had hope. He still had the courage and the willingness to fight. Sora on the other hand had no hope, no courage, no willingness to fight against the guy he considered to be his best friend up 'till that battle.

Then suddenly, another platform rose out of the darkness and on that platform was Rui. The last person Sora expected, but probably exactly the person Sora needed. "Onee... chan..." Sora said with the tears rolling down his cheeks. He couldn't remember the last time he cried where other people could see him. He couldn't remember the last time he called his sister anything but Rui. And he couldn't tell if it was because it was too long ago to remember or if it was because Nexus made him forget. "Haruto-kun... Haruto-kun..." He couldn't even get himself to tell his sister out loud. "Haruto-kun is a traitor." Wolf said, obviously being out of breath. "Sora-sama, please. Battle. Fight back." Wolf begged Sora again.

"Colour charge." Sora said after drawing two cards, just like before. "Now, Sora-sama!" Wolf yelled, but Sora had no idea how the game worked. "Sora-sama, it doesn't matter what you do. Just do something." Wolf lied.

"Euhm... Haruto-kun has three attackers, so I probably should summon three attackers too. One level 0, one level 1 and... another level 1." Although Wolf was extremely injured, he started jumping up and down out of excitement. "Looks like the presence of your big sister has a great influence on you." Wolf winked at his Commander.

Sora took a deep breath. "Wolf... Full attack." He whispered.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

'Something feels off. I can't quite put my finger on it.' was all Wolf could think about when Haruto and Sora got transported to the battlefield. Sora was shocked to find himself in a very dark place. His body started to shiver and he was forced to close his eyes for a minute. Fear took over both his mind and his body. Scared, he couldn't remember ever being as scared as he was back then.

"Where are we? Haruto-kun?" He mumbled, but Haruto didn't respond. "Is this where we fight? Haruto-kun?" He asked Haruto, but he didn't respond. Sora looked around himself and noticed a small boy standing up on the table before him, a small boy who seemed very similar to Wolf. "This is the battlefield, Sora-sama. Only Commanders are allowed in here." Wolf said in a relaxed way while stretching his body. "Looks like Haruto-kun will start the game." Wolf said, pointing upwards at a large clock whose hand pointed towards the color red.

"Looks like Haruto-kun has a Red deck, we have a Green one." Wolf said, preparing himself for what would come. However, there wasn't any attack to prepare for. "Sora-sama, looks like it's our turn." Sora was so surprised that his mouth literally fell open. "Haruto-kun? What did you just do? You're not going to tell me how to play the game? How is this a fair game?" However, Haruto still didn't respond to the questions. Haruto wasn't acting like the Haruto Sora knew. "Sora-sama, be careful." Sora was confused about Wolf's warning. "Wolf, don't worry. It's just Haruto-kun. He probably doesn't tell me anything, because he already showed me. Let's start by drawing a card like he did." He said as he held his hand above the pile of cards, after which one of the cards joined the other five.

"Then... What did he say? Colour... colour... colour change? No... colour... colour charge! That's it! Colour charge!" He said happily and still full of hope. The green mist from under their feet gathered in Wolf's hand and formed a small ball at the front of the table. "Now... I should probably put some attackers on the battlefield too. Two attackers, level 1 and level 0." He said, repeating the action he saw Haruto do. Two of his cards placed themselves next to Wolf. "Now... Attack, Sora-sama!" Sora was confused.

"What? But Haruto-kun didn't attack. Should I attack?" Wolf seemed to become frustrated. "He doesn't want you to attack. He doesn't want you to win. He probably knew you would imitate him. Attack, Sora-sama!" Sora shook his head. "No! Haruto-kun isn't like that. He wouldn't trick me." Wolf sighed. "He would. Now, attack, Sora-sama!" Sora felt conflicted. He was fighting his best friend, who was helping him, so why did he feel like that? Was Wolf the problem? "Turn end."

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Sora was both shocked and glad to see that Haruto was there with him. He didn't think that he wanted to see anyone, but Haruto could always calm him down. "I know that you didn't do it on purpose, Haruto-kun. Don't worry about it. I am not angry at you or anything, how could I? You're my best friend!" He smiled.

It was quite a shock that Haruto was a Commander too, but his Avatar was even more of a shock. Wolf was quite similar to Sora and Lumia was quite similar to Rui, but Haruto gets... that... guy? It was almost laughable. "Of course we would love to battle! I was getting quite bored anyways!" Wolf said excitingly. There was something off about the duo, he did feel it, but he was too excited to battle to worry about it. "Let's go, Sora-sama!"

Sora was hesitating. "Wolf, I thought you said I shouldn't yet, because I didn't read the rules properly?" Wolf laughed. "Yeah, that's still true, but I am so bored and battling is really fun!" Sora looked at Wolf, then at Haruto and realised that he shouldn't be scared of Haruto. "Well, it's fitting that none other than my best friend is the first opponent I battle against. And I do have a wish I really need to make come true." Wolf felt like he was floating when he heard Sora agree.

"Alright! Hold my card in front of you and say 'open'!" Sora nodded, after which he did what Wolf asked of him. "Open", he whispered.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Sora really got his hopes up when Lumia seemed to agree with his idea, but immediately sunk into the ground after hearing Rui's reaction. "Of course I know, he did explain... But we can't get our memories back without battling right, so why not try on each other?" However, what he said didn't matter as she only got more and more upset. He felt like he couldn't say anything at that point that wouldn't make her more disappointed than she already was. Was that really the Rui from before? Had she always been like that? He couldn't remember anymore.

He was already down from hearing and seeing her so upset, but he was completely shocked to have been kicked out of her room. He couldn't say anything, he couldn't move, he was just... shocked. He stumbled out of the room after she yelled a second time. After the door closed, tears streamed down his face. "I just... I just wanted to connect..." He whispered so soft that even Wolf had a hard time understanding what he said. "Sora-sama, I don't think she meant what she said. Don't worry about it." Although Wolf had a hard time feeling compassion and be serious, he didn't push any further than that.

After breating deeply in and out for a couple of minutes, he ran as hard as he could down the stairs and outside the door. Even outside he kept on running until he was out of breath. When he came to a stop, he punched a tree close to him, which made his fist hurt very much. "Sora-sama!" Wolf, who Sora had put in the pocket of his jacket, cried out. Even more tears streamed down Sora's face and he didn't know what he felt anymore. He took Wolf out of his pocket and looked at him closely.

"Why does she have to be like that?! I tried... I really tried to become close to her, just like when we were little, but it seems as if everything I do fails! Every attempt to become close to her backfires. It feels as if she doesn't WANT to do anything with me before. It's as if Rui hates me... That's why I need to do the battles! If I do the battles, then I can wish for us to be close again and everything will be fixed!"

Wolf didn't know what to say, so the first couple of minutes after Sora said those last words were complete silence. "You're yelling." Wolf finally said. "Of course I am yelling! She really hurt me deep! I don't remember why I come home to the same house every day anymore, nobody in that house cares what happens to me... I need to battle." And it was at that moment that Sora heard a familiar voice.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Sora chuckled together with Rui when Rui mentionned how similar he and his Avatar are. "Yeah, I believe so too. But I can say the same thing about you two." Sora said, after which he winked at Rui. "You're both stressed out and uptight. This game will do you good." Sora started to laugh really loud. "Wolf, that's no way to talk to them. But he is right, you know. We used to play together all the time and now you do nothing but sitting at your desk! Let's battle!" Sora said, immediately jumping off the bed, excited.

Wolf was shocked to hear those last words coming out of Sora's mouth. For once, he wasn't the relaxed, don't-worry-about-it guy. "You're going to battle your sister? You haven't even read the rules properly!" Sora shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like this will be a life-or-death battle, right? We still have two of the seven coins." Wolf took a deep breath. "But the loser will be at their last coin. That battle will be life-or-death and you won't know how cruel or strong the next opponent will be!" Sora started to lose his patience.

"I thought you wanted her to be more fun. Battling will be fun." It seems like that sentence was all Wolf needed to get back to his usual self. "You know what? You're right! So... what will it be, ladies?" Wolf said with a grin. Sora held up the card right before him, so Wolf and Rui were at eye level.

Nexus: The battle for one's memories.

Sora felt overwhelmed in a wave of sadness when he realised that Rui had the same problem as he did... and it was all his fault. "I am sorry... It's all my fault. I shouldn't have bought the game." Wolf shrugged his shoulders. "It isn't your fault, you know. It's just mere coincidence that you both are Commanders. Only a small group of the Nexus players are in fact Commanders." Even if that was true, it still stung.

Rui's Avatar seemed pretty uptight. 'Fitting...' Sora thought. He decided to accept Rui's offer, so he closed the door and took a seat on the bed, pretty close to Rui. It felt weird, being alone with his sister. It had been so long since they spent any time together that he forgot how to talk, move or act when he was around her.

Sora put Wolf on his right knee. "You two look pretty alike you know. Oh, my apologies for being rude. The name is Wolf! Nice to meet you, Sora's sister!" Sora nervously rubbed his head when Wolf called Rui his sister. "You can call her Rui, you know." Great... He already started talking like the guy.

"I didn't expect this to happen at all. I am not even good at games like these, I picked it because I thought you would be good at it and... you know... lately..." Sora was thinking about how to finish the sentence, but Wolf suddenly finished it for him. "Lately, you're no fun at all?" He laughed. "Wolf! That's rude! I just meant... You seem to work really hard and it's okay to ask for a break. I thought that if I gave you something you would probably be good at... You would be alright with taking a break."

Wolf shrugged his shoulders again. "That's the difficult way of saying exactly the same thing." Sora chuckled. "It's the respectful way of saying the exact same thing." Sora really started to like having Wolf around. He was relaxed, nozy, direct and he had a lot of energy. He just was fun to be around. He reminded him of... himself when he was still comfortable being around his sister.