This is the story of a single man who would change his fate.

It has been nearly one decade since the beings called Earthbound Gods appeared and wreaked their vicious havoc upon the planet. The pathetically small percentage of humanity that escaped their wrath has been forced to flee underground. Though resourceful enough to carve out a complex underground network of tunnels, and maintain some semblance of normal life, they cower below the earth in fear, helpless against the terror that lurks just above their heads.

Unsurprisingly, however, food underground tends to be scarce, so most people who are unable to join one of the few underground villages resort to scavenging, thievery, and sometimes even murder. For these unfortunate people, life under the surface is harsh, brutal, and often short. Only the bravest of individuals dare to leave the underground in order to obtain rations, and they are usually caught and eaten by the Earthbounds within a few months. This existence, though pitiful, has quickly become routine for most people. They accept that there is nothing they can do to improve their conditions. After all, who could stand up to Gods?

And yet, no matter what, there are always a few dissenters, a handful of naysayers who seek to redirect their destinies. The existence of these dissenters is, of course, a part of human nature itself…and this is their tale.

Crow had actually been feeling pretty good up until this point, thank you very much. He'd met quite a few more villagers than usual that day, and had cleaned out all of their pockets completely. Most had only been carrying bread crumbs or half-gnawed strips of meat, but one had yielded an entire apple. Sure, it had a thin coat of lint, but apples were easy to clean; and besides, Crow had resorted to consuming worse things before, far worse. In any case, he would feast tonight.

He'd been so pleased with himself, in fact, that apparently somewhere along the way back to his home (if it could be called that, as it'd only been a sizable indent in one of the many underground tunnels down here), he'd gotten lost. Now, as he stood at a fork in the path, he could debate and debate, but still had no idea which route he'd come through.

Cursing his inattentiveness, he reminded himself not to be reckless about this. After all, if he took a wrong turn from here he'd end up even more lost than he already was! …If that was possible, anyway.

Deciding that he was screwed anyways if he just stood there, he picked the left exit at random and began to move through the dank tunnel. It looked so dark and lonely that he'd expected his feet to sink slightly into the dirt underneath, but instead it felt firm and well-tread from frequent passage. Crow ran a palm briefly over the tunnel wall and found it unusually smooth. He felt his stomach drop - perhaps this wasn't the path he'd taken after all. He had half a mind to give up and turn back, when he took a corner and - his eyes were met with light!

Someone had dug a large room, just ahead! From what he could see, small bulbs were strung up from small posts nailed into the wall. Crow had to blink back the spots forming in his eyes. He'd never seen lights so bright before - outside of villages, anyway. Did someone live here? If so, they were surprisingly resourceful! Damn, this was fascinating. Nearly tripping over himself in excitement, he stumbled into the room, and was shocked yet again.

It didn't appear like a hermit's dwelling; rather, it seemed big enough for four, maybe five people. Worn and unattractive, yet sturdy-looking tables and chairs stood here and there, and a tall shelf was situated at the very back. Strange tools of all shapes and sizes were strewn everywhere, some Crow couldn't even recognize. Even weirder, various bizarre machinery had been set up on most of the tables, even more alien to him than the tools.

The most intriguing object by far, however, was a large, fascinating red mass of gears, plates, and generally miscellaneous parts wired together and sitting in a corner. Unlike everything else in the room, it didn't look as if anyone had touched it for ages. Crow couldn't see why they hadn't – he couldn't explain why, but something about it was…beautiful.

Against his better judgment (actually, what better judgment? This place was so interesting that by now "better judgment" was little more than a tiny little nagging voice), he began to make his way to the half-finished machine. Taking great care not to step on anything that looked particularly sharp or otherwise dangerous, he slowly sidled his way closer and closer to the thing – until he could almost touch it.

In fact, y'know what? He reached out….

"Freeze", a voice demanded calmly.

Crow jumped violently despite himself, and slowly turned around to the barrel of a gun. Its owner, a dark-haired man who couldn't have been much older than Crow himself, glared at him from behind the weapon with sharp eyes. There was something alarmingly sunken about his figure. At first, Crow thought the man had appeared straight out of nowhere; then noticed that there was a mass of chairs and blankets on the opposite side of the room, organized in a manner that if a human had been sitting or lying there, even his keen eyes probably would have missed them.

"Hands in the air", the man stated again, in the same level tone. Crow obeyed immediately. At the same time, he tried to weigh the chances that this guy might be bluffing, and that the pistol would be unloaded or even fake. However, seeing how he knew nothing about this person other than that their house was filled with machines and sharp things, it was most likely in his best interests to take said person seriously.

"Turn around and leave", the man said, and Crow hurried to comply…until, the stranger added, "Oh, and leave your rations here, as well."

Crow stopped. Like hell he was going to leave his food! Who knew when he'd be able to get in such a haul again? But…the person behind him did have a pistol. He was debating furiously on what to do when a dull thud sounded behind him, and there was the distinct bang of a gun firing! Crow emitted a high, involuntary shriek, and whirled around, ready to beg the guy not to shoot again….

Only to find that the stranger wasn't there anymore.

Crow was ready to panic again when he realized that disappearance wasn't the case at all. A step closer confirmed his suspicions – the man had actually collapsed onto the floor! The gun had merely gone off from the impact of being dropped. (He wasn't sure what had happened to the bullet, but as he couldn't see blood anywhere, it was probably safe to assume it'd only gone into a wall or something.)

…Well, this was certainly awkward.

Now that there was no longer any danger of his brains being blown out, however, Crow took the opportunity to observe his would-be assailant.

Crow pegged the guy at being around seventeen to nineteen. His hair stuck up everywhere; it was like this person didn't even own a comb. (If Crow wasn't mistaken, however, there also seemed to be some highlights in his hair. This baffled him.) Despite living underground just like Crow, his skin also seemed to be rather tanned. (This also baffled him. Crow glanced around at the hanging bulbs. Could artificial light create a tan? He had no idea. Outside of the dim and minimal lighting set up in most tunnels, electricity was the privilege of a villager, and therefore alien to him.)

The stranger was also frighteningly thin. In fact, Crow was alarmed to find that the stranger appeared to be so emaciated, so starved, that he could see what was probably every last bone in the guy's hands. No wonder he had demanded food. Crow turned the guy's limp body over with his foot. He then reached into his pocket and withdrew a small piece of what he assumed to be steak, until remembering that you weren't supposed to give a famished person meat. And he was pretty sure bread crumbs weren't going to be enough.

That left the apple, then.

Damnit.

Considering that only a minute ago this man had been threatening to kill him, Crow was ready to just leave him there and get on with his life.

But….

"Ugh, he had better be grateful for this", Crow grimaced. Snatching a knife from a nearby table, he cut a slice from the apple and proceeded with his first attempt at force-feeding.

At first, he had no idea how to go about it, holding the stranger's jaw open and attempting to poke the fruit in. He must have hit something weird in his inexperience, because the man abruptly gagged (making Crow jump), rolled over onto his side, and promptly vomited all over the floor next to him.

Crow commenced with a loud stream of his best and most creative swear words.

When he'd summoned the courage to try again, however, this time when the apple was placed in the stranger's mouth, slowly but surely, he began to chew and swallow. This startled Crow for what felt like the twenty-sixth time, and he expected the guy to get up or something…but, no, he was still mostly unconscious, and eating out of sheer will and instinct. (Crow found this rather impressive, if pretty freaky as well.) He fed the man another piece, but draped a blanket over the man and waited a few hours before trying again. You weren't supposed to give a starving person too much food at once.

After the fourth session, however, Crow was feeling exhausted, and his eyes felt like they would implode in their sockets if he tried to keep them open any longer. He reasoned to himself that now that he'd shared his food with this person, he probably couldn't object anymore even if Crow stayed the night. That would just be ungrateful.

There were some sleeping blankets Crow hadn't noticed before stashed behind the shelf. He cheerfully helped himself to one of them, and was fast asleep within five minutes.

When Crow awoke, the stranger was gone. Still half-asleep, he wasn't too bothered by this phenomenon at the time, and immediately went back to sleep.

The next time he woke up, however, the guy still wasn't there. This time, Crow began to feel a bit concerned. Crawling from the sleeping bag, he began to search the room. The first place he checked after taking a quick scan of the floor was the mass of objects he suspected the person had been hiding behind when Crow had initially entered the room. But there was nothing.

That was strange. There really weren't a lot of other hiding places in here. Could that possibly mean….

"You know, I'd appreciate if you stopped going through my possessions."

Crow leapt into the air. Yet again.

When he turned around, though, he was both relieved and annoyed that the speaker was, of course, just the guy he'd been looking for, standing in the entryway – apparently he'd just returned. This quickly turned into mild concern when Crow noticed that the man, though apparently feeling well enough to walk around, still wasn't too steady on his feet.

"Hey, you shouldn't be up yet", Crow informed him. "Look at you. You're swaying. Where have you been? Don't go get yourself killed now, or I'll have cleaned up your puke for nothing."

The man responded by striding over and dropping himself into a chair. For one perilous second, Crow was convinced that this guy really had done something to strain himself, and now his charity would have been wasted…. But the stranger merely opened a dark blue eye and stared apathetically at him. Crow was about to voice his discomfort when something was thrown at him. It was a slightly mangled chicken wing.

"I can't eat that, so you can have it", the man informed the ceiling.

"Oh, er…", Crow stuttered a bit, and sat down on a couch. He felt that he'd been caught off guard. "Thanks."

Satisfied by this response, the man pulled out a few grapes, a canteen of water, and what seemed to be lettuce leaves. He then reached over the table, took a knife, and began helping himself to a little more of Crow's apple.

At this, Crow felt scandalized. "Hey, who said you could have the rest of that?"

The stranger made a vaguely indifferent noise and continued what he was doing.

He also noticed an ant on the table, and proceeded to eat it.

Crow decided that this wasn't really worth protesting any further. Clearing his throat a bit, he asked, "So, when're you going to ask?"

"Ask what?"

"Y'know…why I saved you, all that crap."

The guy stopped cutting. "What is there to ask?" he said listlessly. "You saved my life, for some reason or other, but you did. There's not much else to know."

Crow was rather taken aback by this aloof response. "…Oookay, then where've you been? Seriously, if you go running around like that when you're not okay yet, you'll end up half-dead again."

"I've lived through worse", was the reply. (Somehow, Crow doubted it.) "I was getting food."

"Eh? How?" If this guy had gone hunting in his condition, Crow would have to conclude him suicidal.

Thankfully, he hadn't, or he didn't say he had. "With this", the man replied, and gestured at the pistol he'd set on the floor beside him. "And no, I didn't kill anyone", he added quickly upon seeing Crow's horrified expression. "I…only threatened them."

Crow involuntarily conjured an image of this guy advancing slowly upon a small cluster of people, teetering in gait, skeletal in figure, savage hunger seeping from psychotically bloodshot eyes, pistol cocked and focused upon their foreheads, just waiting for a potential cue to let Death loose upon them….

Yeesh. Crow shuddered. Whoever the poor victims were, he couldn't blame them for having given in.

But he reined in his imagination. "Soooo", Crow nodded, "you live here alone?"

The man looked at him, as if to ask, "What sort of question is that?" But he merely said, "Yes."

"Really?" Crow raised an eyebrow. "What about your friends and family?"

The instant he said it, Crow realized that it was another stupid question. "Dead", the man answered.

"Oh…I'm sorry." He paused. "Wait, so that's why this place is so big! You weren't always here alone."

"Yes, that's why."

There were a few moments of silence.

"OH-KAY then!" It was then the stranger's turn to be startled as Crow practically vaulted out of his seat. "In that case, I think I'll stay here!"

"I…I…", the man started, "I…what."

"Speak up!", Crow directed loudly, suddenly energetic enough to possibly run up a wall. Man, he was fired up, and to say that it'd been a long while since the last time he'd felt this roused was pure understatement. "I can't hear you!"

"Where the hell", the stranger began, looking ready to choke on something in his great consternation, "did you get the idea that you're going to stay here?"

"Well, why not?"

"Look", the man pointed out, "I can't deny that I owe you. But to just decide that you're going to LIVE here…."

Crow stopped prancing around for a minute and grinned at the guy, fists on his hips. "As I said: why not? Getting food every day would be easier if we work together. And you need someone to keep an eye on you so you don't slip back into, y'know, half-dead-ness. It'd take me hours to get back home from here, anyway. I don't mind leaving it behind; it's not like I forgot anything important there. Besides, I could use the company." He shrugged. "Wouldn't you?"

The man seemed to struggle with his options for a while, before finally deciding that the practicality of it was worth putting up with an obnoxious neighbor. Probably.

"Fine", he grunted, if a bit reluctantly. "You have a deal."

Crow's eyes lit up. "Great!" he declared, and sauntered over to his new roomie. He thrust out a hand, which seemed to astonish the man. "So, now that we're friends, then." The man gave a brief sound of protest at this sentence, but Crow ignored him. "My name's Crow. Crow Hogan. Remember it! And what about you?"

The man hesitated visibly, but relented and shook the hand. "Yusei", he stated. "Yusei Fudo."

Crow nodded enthusiastically. "Okay then, Yusei", he replied, unable to keep himself from breaking into a wide smile. "Here's to a new partnership…and maybe, just maybe, a new future!"

Again, there was silence.

"…You're being way too dramatic about this, you know."