#also shadow is a very random and unexpected character to focus on in generations related content

[sonknuxadow]

Generations is like, the exact opposite of a random choice, from a business perspective it makes the most sense. It being not that old makes it easier to port, and it was critically acclaimed, meaning both that it's a relatively safe bet to pour time and resources into, and that they don't have to spend time changing/fixing stuff. I want to see Unleashed and 06 ports, but it's pretty obvious why Generations got chosen over them, because it reviewed better and the general public liked it more at the time of release

hmm yeah i can understand the reasoning of it being well received and requiring less work. but even then i dont understand why a full on remaster was necessary and not just a port with some new content added yknow.

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Answers To Unexpected Questions:  chapter 1

Juudai enjoyed napping under trees. He wondered at times if that had anything to do with being the Herald of the Gentle Darkness: he liked spending his time in the shadows whenever he could.

Or maybe he just liked to sleep and it was most comfortable when he did so in the dark. Wasn’t it like that for most people anyway?

Well, regardless, he stretched himself out underneath an oak tree and folded his arms behind his head. He wasn’t alone – but he wasn’t ever alone and he liked that – but he wasn’t not alone, either. Pharaoh curled up not that far away, but there wasn’t any sign of Daitoukuji-sensei.

Yubel’s fingers carded through his hair. He hadn’t sensed them emerging from within him, but that was fine. He hadn’t been paying that much attention in the first place. He did like the feeling of their hands in his hair, too. So comfortable… so relaxed…

Yubel’s laugh pulled him just the tiniest bit from sleep and he cracked one eye open to look upwards.

“What’s so funny?” Yubel didn’t normally laugh at him unless he’d done something. Granted, almost anything could spark that, but he’d been here peacefully trying to nap.

“You don’t change in some ways, Juudai,” Yubel murmured, leaning down toward him. “You always fall asleep the first chance that you get.”

He stuck his tongue out. “So? I’m awake when I need to be.” He was still a growing boy – using his powers did take a lot of energy and he had to restore it somehow, didn’t he? - and what was wrong with resting, as long as he was awake when he needed to be?

Yubel chuckled again, still caressing his hair. “Nothing at all. But it reminds me of our first life together.”

First life. He remembered that, more or less, though there were gaps in it. The memories had come fitting back in, like pieces of a puzzle, ever since that last duel of theirs. Two years, maybe three by now, and he had almost the whole thing.

He closed his eyes now and thought over it, trying to work out what was missing, now that Yubel brought it up.

He could remember meeting Yubel, the last survivor of a bandit raid in a tiny village outside of the main city. They’d both been so young then: not even five, he thought. But his father Aodh and his mother Kaien agreed to take Yubel in, giving protection that Yubel wouldn’t have had otherwise.

And giving him a friend that he wouldn’t have had otherwise as well.

His mind ranged up and down through the past, picking out random things, most of them related to Yubel. Yubel always shone strong in his memories and he enjoyed that.

“Yubel,” he murmured, one particular thought ticking at him. “Did I really have to go home naked after someone stole my clothes?”

Again a laugh but he understood why this time. “Yes, you did. I had to fly you there to make sure you didn’t catch a cold. And to make sure no one else saw their prince naked.”

Juudai wrinkled his nose. That didn’t exactly feel like his proudest moment.

Something else slipped into his thoughts and he took another look at those memories. Having enough for two lifetimes wasn’t a comfortable thing at times but he wanted to be certain on this, now that it had occurred to him.

“Yubel,” he said at last, once he was certain of it. “I think I just noticed something.” It had been there all along, but he’d never paid that much attention to it. He’d always had so much else that needed to be doing.

Yubel made a questioning noise. Their thoughts frequently entwined around each other, but Yubel tended not to know what was on his mind – and vice versa – unless they put the actual effort into doing so. That wasn’t a thing that needed doing very often. Usually only in worst-case scenarios, which this wasn’t.

“You’ve always protected me. But the first time around it was different.” He frowned, then shook his head. “No, that’s not right. Now is what’s different. What was different. When I was a kid.”

He peeked up enough to see Yubel looking back at him and sighed. “Okay. The first life together, when I was the Prince of Kuragari and you were changed for me, you protected me like… well, if someone actually attacked me. Or tried to attack me. Like that idiot who thought he could stab me in the back.”

Yubel did a lot of painful things to him. Juudai hadn’t exactly been upset about it then and he wasn’t now. Attempted murder, especially attempted murder of him, wasn’t something you dealt with via a slap on the wrist.

Besides, given the laws in Kuragari about trying to attack the royal family, the attempted assassin probably got off easy.

He dragged his thoughts back to the present, wanting to ask what was on his mind.

“But when I was a kid this time, it was different. You attacked anyone who dueled me and won. They weren’t really trying to kill me, and I think you knew that.” He peered up again. Yubel’s expression was unreadable, even for him. “You killed people, Yubel.” He did what he could not to sound accusing. He wasn’t accusing Yubel of anything.

Besides, accusing meant there was some form of doubt. He knew that Yubel killed them. Yubel knew that Yubel killed them. He just wanted to know why Yubel had killed them.

“I know. I will not say I wish I hadn’t done it. But there is a reason behind it.”

Juudai said nothing out loud, but his entire body vibrated with the need to know. This was one of the things that wasn’t in his memory, if he’d ever known it to begin with.

“Juudai, do you remember how you died?”

He blinked, ruffled through his memories one more time, then shook his head. “Why do you ask?” That was something else he didn’t remember.

Or maybe they were same thing. He reached a hand toward Yubel and caught those long fingers in his own. “Is that why? Because I died?”

How alone had Yubel been and for how long?

Yubel drew in a breath and he knew that Yubel didn’t need to breathe, not like humans did, anyway.

“Let me show you.” Before he could answer, Yubel raised their other hand to silence him. “It will not be easy on either of us. You will not see it as if you were watching television or a movie. You will live it once more. That is the only way I can show it to you.”

It wouldn’t be like when he’d gained the important memories of their past together, Yubel was saying. He’d watched those from a distance, recovering the sense and importance of them as he did. This would be something else altogether.

He nodded. “That’s all right.” He wanted to know. He wanted to understand Yubel.

Yubel considered again, then nodded. “Take us to Neo-Space, Juudai. It’s better to do this where you are safe.”

And there wasn’t anywhere in any world safer for him than Neo-Space. He nodded and called for Pharaoh, tucking the tubby cat down into his backpack. It would be easier to carry him there for this kind of trip than anywhere else.

The Neo-Spacians greeted Juudai when he and Yubel arrived there, Pharaoh leaping out of his backpack as soon as he stood on solid ground again. The cat sniffed around, found a streak of comfortable grass, and curled up to resume his interrupted nap. Juudai appreciated Pharaoh’s appreciation of sleep.

“Good to see you when we’re not fighting,” Aqua Dolphin said, poking his head out of the water. “Just visiting?”

“Pretty much,” Juudai said, finding a place he could be comfortable at himself. “Yubel wants to show me some things from my past life.”

Aqua Dolphin nodded, giving a polite glance to Yubel at the same time. Juudai wasn’t sure of how Yubel interacted with the other members of his deck and figured if there was a big problem, either Yubel or the Neo-Spacians or the Elemental Heroes or Hane Kuriboh would tell him about it.

He had a lot of monsters in his deck, he knew, and he considered each and every one of them one of his dearest friends. Though Yubel remained a friend of an entirely different order entirely.

“This could take some time,” Yubel promised him, getting into place behind him, warm arms embracing him, wings tilting over him a little.

“That’s all right,” Juudai said. “I don’t need to be anywhere for a while anyway. As long as it doesn’t take a week.”

“It shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”

Juudai could deal with that. Being in Yubel’s arms like this brought back so many gloriously happy memories. He closed his eyes at Yubel’s direction. Power stirred, slow and deep and rich, folding all around him. Nothing to fear at all; he was where he was safest, in Neo-Space and in Yubel’s arms.

Slowly his eyes closed and he let himself, Yuuki Juudai of the modern world, slip away completely. Prince Juudai of Kuragari enfolded him, as did the past of so very long ago.

Prince Juudai lounged in his chair, trying to keep his focus and his eyes open and not doing a very good job of it. If there was one thing he found more boring than his long-ago lessons, it was listening to his father doing the general business of running the kingdom.

Well, not all of the general business, because he had people who managed most of it for him, but having to interact with ambassadors and messengers from other kingdoms and the far distant corners of Kuragari itself was something the king or queen had to take care of. Sometimes even Juudai had to lend a hand, if there were matters that his parents couldn’t quite be openly involved in.

This wasn’t one of those. This was a report from one of the borderlands.

“We’ve done our best, Majesty,” the messenger reported. Juudai had heard this king of thing before. He knew the usual words that followed it would report some kind of victory. Kuragari wasn’t a superpower, but few people would’ve thought it wise to attack the home of the Herald of the Gentle Darkness.

His home.

“Our people were pushed back and three border towns have fallen.”

Juudai’s eyes flashed open at once. He’d never heard of that before. He straightened up and looked quickly to his father.

King Aodh leaned forward, worry in his own eyes. “Survivors? Prisoners?”

“Only a handful of the outposts there survived and they’re trying to regroup to see if they can accomplish anything while they’re still there. We haven’t taken any prisoners, but a few of ours were taken.”

Aodh let out a long and sad sigh. “They’re lost to us, then.”

Juudai frowned. “Father, why would that be? Just because they’re captured doesn’t mean they’re dead or would turn traitor.” How could his father have so little faith in their people?

“Juudai.” Aodh considered his words, then shook his head. “I’ll explain this to you later. Let me finish this.”

Juudai still didn’t understand, but he trusted his father to do what was best for the people. He’d have to do something like that one day, though not for one kingdom.

Once the king finished giving orders, the two of them headed to a quiet place: the royal gardens. This wasn’t an unusual way for them to spend some peaceful time together after royal duties, but Juudai quickly got the feeling this wasn’t going to be as peaceful as all that.

“Juudai,” Aodh said once they’d walked for a short time. “I know that you know we’ve had problems on the borders for some time now.”

He nodded. “I didn’t think it was all that serious, though.” How could it be? Their army remained strong and fought bravely. How could they be defeated by what was little more than a fringe mercenary group?

“I didn’t either, until recently. This enemy we face is far more than I expected.”

Aodh fell silent for a few moments. What he said after that sent chills all through Juudai.

“This army isn’t here to fight us, though they will if there is no choice, and I have struggled hard to give them no choice. They are here to fight you.”

Juudai’s words froze in his throat. People would want to fight him? To face him directly. He’d known such a thing was possible but for it to happen? For people to die or worse because of him?

“I wasn’t certain until I received more information this morning, and that report only confirmed it. The force we face is powered by the Light of Ruin itself. It takes many forms, but now it walks this world as a great sorcerer, who has taken over the minds of their followers. They will fight without hesitation or reluctance, throwing their lives away not only to take our land, but to reach the city here, and take you.”

Aodh sighed. “I knew this was a possibility from the moment we knew who you would become. This is why I asked Yubel to take on the body of a dragon, to protect you. Your power is still young and unformed within you. But if they can take you, there is much that they could do to you.”

Juudai didn’t want to hear any of that. He wanted to live out his days as he had so far, thoroughly enjoying himself with Yubel and his friends, looking forward to when he would be free to travel the world as he’d always wanted to.

But the words kept on coming. “With Yubel, you are defended. If they can destroy Yubel -”

“But they can’t!” Juudai shook his head, firm in this. “Yubel can’t be destroyed, you know that, father!” That was part of what made Yubel Yubel. He’d seen powerful attacks on Yubel fizzle away without so much as a breath of harm. Nothing even the Light of Ruin could do would hurt his beloved Yubel. Even if it could, he wouldn’t allow it.

He almost didn’t notice the way the shadows in the garden writhed to his anger. His father rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Relax yourself, my son. There is no danger at this moment. The Light’s warriors are to be guarded against and watched for, but no need to panic now.”

Slowly Juudai fought himself back to control. He needed to get better with that, he knew.

He could also feel Yubel somewhere nearby. Yubel wouldn’t interrupt his time with his father, but would make certain he stayed safe regardless.

“Yubel cannot be destroyed, but there are ways that could confine their power, and yours as well. Nothing in this world is perfect. I have done my best to protect both of you.” Aodh turned a warm gaze toward his son. “It is not impossible that we will put a halt to them before they come close to the city. I have plans to deal with them. But I cannot guarantee their success. You must be ready. Both of you must be ready, no matter what happens.”

Juudai squared up his shoulders and met his father’s eyes. “I’ll be ready.” They wanted to come for him? Then they would find it wasn’t such an easy thing to take him.

Aodh nodded before he turned toward a nearby tree and made a beckoning gesture. “I think perhaps the two of you should spend what quiet time together that you can.”

Yubel stepped from behind the tree, giving a courteous nod to the king at the same moment. All of Yubel’s true attention remained on Juudai, which surprised neither Aodh nor his son. From the moment those two met one another, they’d been the most important person in their respective lives.

“I will protect him even if it costs me my life, my king,” Yubel promised, coming over to Juudai.

“It had better not!” Juudai snapped, one arm going around Yubel’s waist as he leaned against their searing hot skin. Yubel was a dragon now and that reflected in virtually all parts of them. “I don’t want it to cost anything!”

“Everything has a cost,” Aodh said, though his words seemed more directed at himself than Juudai or Yubel. He bid them farewell and by the time he’d taken ten steps away, neither of the two noticed anything but one another. But no one else would’ve expected otherwise.

Yubel looked down at Juudai. His eyes shifted restlessly as he relived those last days, looking so much as if he merely dreamed.

Yubel wished it could be only a dream, that they’d lived a long and peaceful life with Juudai, instead of the scant handful of years they’d had then.

But that was then. This was now. Now they were united as they’d never been in the past, and Juudai had his responsibilities well in hand. There wasn’t anything else to distract either of them from what was most important.

The Neo-Spacians weren’t the only ones watching them now. Yubel had only to look up to see them all there: the Elemental Heroes, especially Neos, and Hane Kuriboh rested not that far away, watching. They could not see what was going on, but the Heroes knew it all the same, and kept their newer deck-mates advised.

For the Elemental Heroes had been Juudai’s bodyguard almost as long as Yubel had. They watched him as any bodyguard would watch their charge. Yubel had other duties, that involved defending him against the Light, no matter the cost.

And yet I failed in the end.

That was what Yubel couldn’t quite say to Juudai. That in the end, despite all the best intentions, they’d failed anyway.

But he would find that out soon enough, and Yubel wouldn’t have kept it from him anyway. If he hadn’t asked, they would’ve told him eventually.

Perhaps it was better this way. These were all of his own memories; all Yubel did was bring them to where he could experience them in a deeper way than ever before.

And there still remained much for him to learn.

To Be Continued

Notes: Well, this is a tale I've had in mind for a while now, and I finally wrote it. It's all finished already (a trend I hope to continue) so posting will be regular for the next couple of weeks.