"Aki, Aki get back here this instant!"

The words were echoed by her mother's sobbing in the background, but at the moment she just couldn't bring herself to care. Slamming the front door behind her, Aki pulled a borrowed hoodie out of her bag and shrugged it on, making sure the hood was secure over her head, and all but ran away from the house. It wasn't for good but she couldn't stay there tonight. Not after that fight.

Sighing to herself, Aki stretched her awareness as far as she could without making her powers visible. She's learned a long time ago that even if she didn't want to hurt anyone, there were people out there who wanted to hurt her. Some of them wanted revenge for what she had done as the Black Rose Witch, but most of them just saw a pretty girl walking alone at night with seemingly no protection. None of them would grab her while she was still in Tops, but she wasn't planning on staying here. Security patrolled too tightly here for her to stick around. Especially when she knew her father would be putting out the call that she had run away from home. Again.

No Tops meant she couldn't hide out at the twins though. And if they somehow managed to get Trudge to be the one to look for her, that immediately meant she couldn't stay at Yusei, Jack, and Crow's place. Hell, when he contacted security that would probably be the first place he would tell them to check. Not that they would rat her out to him. None of them, not even Jack, were going to tell them where she was even if they knew. If she left, they knew there was a reason.

But that still created the issue of where she was going to spend the night. Most of the street contacts she had in Domino were known through Divine. She didn't dare go to them, they would rat her out in a second. A few of her personally cultivated contacts were also a bit too shady for this. While they might not rat her out immediately, they definitely would remember this and hold it against her. If she disappeared for too long, her father would put out a reward and then they definitely would rat on her. Aki also didn't dare use the woman's shelter she had a few times before. Security had tracked her a bit too close the last time and it wasn't technically a legal shelter. That left the psychics.

Of the few psychics who could be considered 'friendly' (Even if in only the loosest sense of the word) most of them were unable to keep her. With Divine's disappearance, Security had taken most of the younger ones in her age range and brought them back to their families. Several of them had been shipped off to boarding schools. A few were in the foster system. Of the adults, several were in a detention center on assault charges. The few who weren't in the system in one way or another, had mostly moved out of the city. Off the top of her head only two remained in the city. Both had apartments in no mans land, but...one had a low-key job of running a garbage barge back and forth to Satellite. Martha had given her an open invitation, as a just in case.

While technically open to the public, Satellite was under strict watch of the comings and goings. Very few people from Domino willingly went into Satellite still, the stigma still ingrained into everyone. Not to mention, overheard conversations had Satellite pegged as a new hangout for newer gangs and a place where some of the less scrupulous characters would try and spread out their "business ventures". Because of that, the comings and goings of Satellite were monitored closely. Vehicle registrations were marked down and marker signals were flagged when they entered or left the proximity. Trying to weed as much as they could before the inevitably lost control of the situation.

The only problem was that she wouldn't be able to leave on the public road. With the word going around that she had runaway again, her coming out of Satellite when there was no record of her going in would be suspicious, and drag attention not only to Martha, the only person she had any kind of connection to there, but also the fact that there was definitely a confirmed way to get in and out of Satellite without them knowing. Not only that, but she had no vehicle right now and asking one of her friends to pick her up would send up flags. Which meant she would be staying gone for a while, and missing a couple days of school.

The thought of school soured her mood even further. If things with her parents were bad, then school was just awful. The whispers and fear clogged the air around her, along with the anger and hatred. From both her peers and her teachers. But her teachers at least didn't dare try to sabotage her for fear of her father's seemingly endless influence. It didn't mean they made things easy. It also meant that she limited how much Luca and Lua were seen with her. No need to drag them down with her, not when they had so many years at Duel Academy left.

Thankfully, her feet knew the routine by now and had taken her through side alleys and over low fences and brought her to the main area of upper New Domino. Ritzy clubs and bars were all over the area and while none of them would let her in, there were pay phones on almost every corner. And all of them were being frequented by people in various states of dress and all of them attempting to place themselves so as to not be able to be identified by the security cameras.

Walking slightly faster, she made it to the closest booth while cutting off an older man in a rumpled suit. Ignoring his scowl, Aki slipped inside and fished some change out of her pocket and slipped it in before typing out the number which Martha had made her memorise in case of emergencies.

The phone rang a few times, before being picked up.

"Hello?"

Sighing lightly in relief at the clearly awake voice, she smiled slightly.

"Hi Martha, it's Aki. I'm sorry to bother you so late, but I have to ask you a favour."

This school entrance exam was going to be the thing that made him start throwing furniture in a fit, Yusei just knew it.

Education had always been a challenge. Martha did her best, but with so many children at varying levels, she didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to things beyond reading, writing, and basic math. And people who were willing to teach you more in Satellite were rarer than gold. Finding someone who would teach you for less than eternal servitude was rarer than diamonds. So he knew, on a purely intellectual, level that there were some severe gaps in his education. But it had never bothered him. The things he didn't know wouldn't help him so they had been inconsequential at the time. But he wasn't stuck in Satellite anymore and now the future stretched out before him, gated by this entrance exam and the gaps in his knowledge.

In all honesty, he could probably bypass these entirely for the moment and just get a general education certification, but that created other blockades down the road he really didn't want to deal with when it came to further education. General statistics stated that colleges accepted more of those who had a certified school diploma rather than those who had a general education one. Being a marked criminal and known to be from Satellite created enough issues, even if he had been born in Tops. Which brought him back to the issue of getting accepted to an accredited school.

Originally, he'd compiled a list of the schools in Domino, sorted them by academic ranking and then applied to pretty much every single one from the bottom half of the list. Nearly all of them had rejected him for one reason or another. Some cited the lack of previous records, others the fact that they were full and had a waiting list. Most he suspected, didn't want him because he was Satellite. Others, because they managed to make the not so illogical jump and connect him with the former head of the Ener-D project. Considering the response, he was glad he hadn't wasted his time applying to more prestigious institutions. So now he had three schools who were willing to give him a chance, but all of them wanted him to take this basic skills exam to make sure he could actually keep up.

Sighing, Yusei stretched out on his bed and threw an arm over his eyes. Even with all of the hardships though, learning had never been this difficult. Before, it had simply been something that needed to be done if he wanted to get better and make himself useful. What was it about studying for this stupid test that was so different? Why was it so difficult now?

But before the frustration could build up any higher, a shrill rang erupted from his cell phone. Tense, he sat up and looked at the screen. Martha.

Eyes flickering over to the clock, he saw that it was almost midnight. Martha never called this late. Not without a good reason. Worried now, he hit the accept button and brought it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Yusei, I'm sorry to bother you so late but I didn't want you to panic just incase you got a phone call in a bit," She sounded sorry, but there was anger lacing the words which, conversely, made him relax. Martha didn't get angry if something was seriously wrong or someone was hurt. That was saved for afterwards when everything was in the clear.

"What's wrong Martha? What happened?"

A sigh. "Aki left home again. She somehow managed to get here under security's eye apparently and asked to stay for a few days. She would have gone to you, but she was afraid that was the first place they would look and didn't want to be a bother to you. But she asked if I would call you anyways just so you wouldn't worry about her when they came knocking at your door."

Frustration began building up again, only for a completely different reason this time. It was no secret in his circle of friends that like the dragon which was his ace, Yusei was possessive of what he considered his. His friends were chief among them. And out of his friends, it was an even worse kept secret from almost the first time he laid eyes on her, Aki because one of the things he guarded most.

"Thank you for telling me Martha. I'll be there in the morning." Morning however, was subjective. In all technicalities, Morning was arriving in about two minutes. Though no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't go now. Not when there were people looking for her. Senator Izayoi would send people to look for her as soon as she had left, if only because he knew how accomplished she was at disappearing when she wanted to. Hidden in the shadows of New Domino by other psychic duelists who understood only too well what she was going through and would help her, former reputation working against her or not. (Just because she was the most well known, doesn't mean that there aren't those who did worse) But that didn't mean he wouldn't leave and get there before morning traffic settled in. And that would be his exact excuse. If anyone asked further, he was going so early so that he could get a head start on the maintenance that needed to be done before most of the kids woke up. Which wasn't a lie. He probably would do some repairs while he was there. But he probably would have put them off another week or two if it weren't for this.

There was a slight hum of agreement on the other end, the woman who raised him no doubt knowing exactly what was running through his mind at the moment, before she too said goodbye and the call cut out. Quickly resetting his alarm for an earlier time, Yusei turned his light off and firmly crawled into bed. First sleep, then he would drive over and check on the most fragile of his friends. Hopefully, she'd gotten out before they did too much damage. Again.

Word Count: 2,180

Aki's seemingly immediate acceptance of her parents always bugged me. So did the fact that she went from this emotionally fragile badass duelist to a fan service benchwarmer. It never struck me that Satellite had any kind of official schooling for the kids there, so Yusei probably had a lot of trouble with subjects outside of reading comprehension, math and science. But considering he was head of that project at the end of 5Ds, he needed to have some kind of schooling credentials.

This doesn't have a set update schedule. This is also not going to be duel heavy. If there are duels (which chances are high if I write this into the series), chances are I will cut away from them rather than write them out. I don't think a lot of people appreciate the sheer information you need to calculate when writing a good, meaningful duel which isn't pulled from the anime.

The title is also temporary and subject to change. No Beta as always, criticism welcome. Enjoy.