Title: Extra Training
Characters: Iris, Haruto, Shark, Kaito, Michael
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 2,011
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: YGO Zexal, E3, 1-shot with no dividers; Valentine's Day to White Day 2015, YGO Zexal, day #27, female POV; Halloween Trick or Treat Advent 2015, YGO Zexal, day #23, write a fic that's harmless fun; Valentine's Day to White Day 2016, YGO Zexal, #29, personal headcanon; Easter Egg Basket Advent 2016, YGO Zexal, day #12, pair up two characters not seen in the franchise together & give them a common task; Christmas Advent 2017, day #22, take two characters who don't interact & create a scenario where they do; Zexal Week Day #3, 10 years later
Notes: Obviously, 10 years later. Iris and Haruto are both 18. Plenty of headcanons on what happened as they grew up here!
Summary: Iris and Haruto keep secrets from their elders – well, they think they do, anyway.


"Where are you going?" Ryouga wanted to know. Iris tucked her D-Gazer into her pocket, checked on her deck, and shrugged.

"To the movies with Haruto," she told him. Like she did every weekend. It was something to do that wasn't dueling - not that she disliked dueling, there wasn't really any way that she could, not with having grown up in a household of duelists. But it wasn't the be-all and end-all of her existence, and she only carried the deck around because Vector would start handing out knives if she didn't.

Not that Iris had anything against knives, either, but the way Ryouga and Rio both stared at Vector when he offered her extra lessons told her quickly they didn't need to know how good she was with them, even without Vector's help. Uncle Michael gave her sword-fighting lessons every weekend after all. Edged weapons were as useful a tool as a dueling deck, and one that most people were less likely to think an eighteen year old might use against them.

Iris far preferred to handle her own problems. The last time she'd complained about someone being annoying, everyone in the family plus a few extras - such as Uncles Michael, Thomas, and Chris, as well as Uncle Yuuma and Uncle Kaito, came down on the offender like the proverbial ton of bricks. It took months for anyone to ever talk to her again at school.

At least she didn't have to worry about that with Haruto. They all liked Haruto and he knew how not to get on their bad sides. Plus, he'd learned more than a few things that his brother didn't know about, so he kept her secrets about what she could do that her elders didn't know.

And he was a fantastic sparring partner.

Ryouga regarded her thoughtfully, then nodded. "Enjoy yourself," was all he said. Iris knew what that meant - don't murder someone without one heck of a good reason. She was fine with that. Rio had taught her what a good reason was. So far she hadn't had to kill anyone and she didn't really want to. She liked learning dueling and fighting for reasons aside from blood-lust, no matter what Vector swore by.

So she headed out of the mansion and to the center of town, where Haruto sat outside of Heartland Tower and waited for her, kicking his feel lazily in a fountain. She vaguely remembered that he'd been a bit sickly and weak when they were children. Most of that had been before she'd come to this world, so she'd heard of it mostly as stories from Ryouga and Uncle Kaito, or from Haruto himself. When she'd first met him, he'd been getting better, and she'd helped him improve over the years.

Now one couldn't tell that he'd ever been at risk of dying at all. He leaped to his feet as soon as he caught sight of her and waved, eyes bright with joy.

"Ready?" He wanted to know as she drew closer. Iris smiled; she did enjoy spending time with him. And she enjoyed what they were about to do just as much. Maybe even a bit more.

"Ready." She nodded, one hand dropping down to where she kept her duel disk - and the little secret hidden inside the same pocket. Haruto nodded as well, and the two of them headed off. Both of them knew very well that Omoid - oldest offspring of Obomi and Orbital 7 - followed them. Omoid followed Haruto anywhere he went and did anything he could in order to help him.

Haruto had had to do a little reprogramming as he got older to make sure Omoid kept certain things he and Iris did a secret, but as long as they came home without any major injuries, most things could be hidden from the eye of elder siblings. Iris did wonder how much Uncle Kaito really knew. He didn't seem like the type of person who would easily be deceived. Yet if he did know what they did - not every lesson they had from Uncle Michael was sanctioned - he said nothing at all about it.

They arrived at the Arclight mansion relatively quickly. This wasn't their original home, or so Iris had been told. They moved to Heartland on a regular basis a few years earlier and set up residence. That was fine with her. She liked spending time with all of them.

Though she wasn't ever going to forget the day that Uncle Thomas and Uncle Vector both ended up baby-sitting her at the same time. Three fire trucks, five police cars, and she still didn't know how they'd avoided being arrested. Ryouga didn't like to talk about it.

Michael welcomed them there as soon as they entered, guiding them to the familiar sparring grounds.

"It's just us today," he told them. "Chris is working with Kaito and Mizael helping out Father." His lips twitched. "I'm not quite certain where Thomas is, though.

That was fine with Iris, and apparently Haruto to. She'd known about them being busy anyway. She slipped her duel disk out, flipped open the hidden slot in the back, and her sword hilt dropped into her hand.

"I'm ready for training!" She declared, and Haruto matched her motions with his own. Michael chuckled.

"I didn't expect anything less," he told them, and the three of them settled down to the business of sparring together. Iris snapped the hilt, hitting the hidden button, and the blade itself unfolded. This was new technology, spurred on by various companies in the city, and Michael had given each of them one of these as a surprise present. It certainly made keeping these lessons secret from the rest of the family a lot easier.

She took the lead, approaching quickly, and striking. They didn't often work with live steel first, but Michael's point of view on the matter was that one, they needed to use it as often as possible, and two, they needed to be careful. Using wooden or foam bats wouldn't teach caution. He knew how to take care of virtually any injury they could inflict on each other, and after five years of learning, they both knew how not to hurt the other. Michael promised that they would be able to hurt other people if the time ever came.

Iris wasn't so sure if she wanted that, but she also knew the first lesson he'd taught her - never to pick up a weapon of any kind, be it a sword or a duel disk, unless you were both willing and capable of using it. The Numbers War was long over, but who knew when something else might happen and she might be one of those called to arms. Better to be ready and never need it, than need it and not be able to do anything. Ryouga and Rio absolutely agreed on that, at least.

So she sparred and she learned, and Haruto fought her with all of his strength. She pushed back, struck down carefully, judging her strength and where she aimed, and pushed him back. He twisted his blade, making an attempt to disarm her, and she stepped back, getting out of the clinch and taking a different angle for her counterattack. As time ticked by, Iris could not contain the pure joy that came from being able to do this at all.

She remembered her life in the past very clearly, and how she'd died. She might not want to attack other people, but she would always want to be able to defend herself. That was one of the reasons her clothes were specially made to be just shy of being actual armor. Ryouga had insisted on that after they'd all come back from the trip to the Astral-Barian World. She'd never been there, but she kind of wanted to, one of these days.

Metal clattered against metal, ringing loudly, but they could still hear Michael's firm voice instructing them on what to do. Eventually he called a halt - both of them dripped sweat, and Iris wanted something to drink. She slipped her sword's blade back into the hilt and started to turn around for the exit.

In the exit there stood Ryouga. No, not Ryouga - Nasch. Her king. His eyes stern and his lips not smiling at all. Iris swallowed and essayed a smile of her own.

"This isn't a movie," he said quietly. "This is very much not a movie."

"I know." Iris agreed. It wasn't as if she could argue that. She would keep the secret, but he clearly already knew it. She'd never been able to argue with him when he looked at her like that. She worried at her lip, then mentally shrugged. "It's just extra lessons, that's all."

Nasch nodded faintly. "How long have you been doing this?"

"A while now," she answered. Neither Haruto or Michael said anything else. She suspected Michael was a little annoyed, if only because Nasch had entered without - she guessed - asking permission.

"I can guess." He crossed his arms, regarding her thoughtfully. "Have you been hurt?"

"Nothing bad." Iris shrugged. "I can hold my own. We're good at this."

His eyes softened ever so lightly and she began to breathe easily. Or at least easier. "I noticed. Did you relay think I believed you were going to the movies? That you like them that much?"

Iris ducked her head. "I hoped?" Didn't most teenagers go to movies with friends? She didn't think she was that out of touch. Sure, she didn't have that many friends at school she could open up to, but she'd heard them all talking about movies and going on dates. She did like movies, but going to see them every week just seemed boring. She would have far preferred going to the ocean or up to the mountains. The few times she'd hung out with Yamikawa at the Duel Lodge had been very instructive.

"I think it's going to be a couple of weeks before you do this again," he told her quietly. "And if you want to do it again, then I want to know about it before you go. Understand?"

"Got it." Iris knew she was getting off easy. Ryouga nodded slightly before he looked at Haruto. "Kaito's probably going to say the same thing to you."

"Kaito-sama already knows," Omoid piped up. "I told him after their firsts unofficial lesson."

Haruto blinked. "I thought I reprogrammed you so you wouldn't do that."

"You did." Kaito stepped up next to Nasch. "I reprogrammed him back."

Iris could see the pride in Kaito's eyes regardless of his words. Whatever else he felt, he was glad Haruto could do these things. If Kaito had really objected, then they would have known it long before this.

Ryouga gestured to her, and she started over. She knew that she wasn't going to be seriously grounded - he'd let up on the punishments and let her make her own mistakes for a while now. He wouldn't be that upset about extra lessons. If anything, what had to have upset him was that she'd not told him the truth. He'd get over it.

Just to prove it, she glanced over to Michael and to Haruto. "I'll see you next week," she addressed Michael first, then Haruto. "Tomorrow?"

"Sure," Haruto agreed calmly, with Michael nodded. He was clearly having trouble keeping himself from laughing. Kaito and Ryouga both snorted, but Iris knew what they sounded like when they were upset, and this wasn't it. Everything was fine.

Together they all headed out. Iris couldn't have been more satisfied with what happened. She'd had a great workout and she didn't have to hide her extra trips from the others anymore. She'd more or less wanted to tell them from the beginning; events just hadn't fallen out that way. Being older did come with some advantages.

Ryouga still made her wear her helmet on the way home.


The End

Notes: One day I might write more about Omoid and Haruto. You really think Kaito wouldn't have one of those little bots assigned to keep an eye on his brother?

Ryouga was probably a lot angrier than he let on, but Iris is eighteen. She can make her own decisions, and Rio probably lectured him on that. Maybe I will write that side piece eventually.