Crow was annoyed. It was grey and wet, a combination of weather that he particularly hated. And still, he had been sent out to run Yusei's errands for him. Well, errand, there was just the one but still. He'd trudged to all of the usual garages in search of parts. The few that had been open had offered an exceptionally meager selection and from the list Yusei had given him, he'd only been able to find about five things, one of which that he suspected was the wrong model. After many hours walking, carrier bag in hand, he'd chanced upon another garage, set up in an old single story warehouse, that had, mercifully, still been open.

Once inside, he groaned. About thirty tables were set up, each one housing its own selection of spare parts, some stacked but most thrown into decidedly messy piles, the height of which exceeded his own. The tables did not form ordered rows but instead cluttered up the available space to the point of suffocation. Other parts were scattered on shelves hanging precariously away from walls. It would take him years to search through this lot. He almost gave up there and then, but as another cloud broke its limits and rain began to pour, he decided to stay for a while and dig out what he could until the onslaught of water ended, or at the very least subsided.

In fairness, the warehouse wasn't actually that bad, excluding the messiness of the parts, there wasn't another thing in the garage that was out of place. The walls were freshly painted in a muted light grey that looked almost white, and the floor looked as if it had been cleaned some time recently. There were no tell-tale dust lines on any shelf or table top and light reflected off of some of the many surfaces, indicating a frequent use of polish and varnish. Despite the rain, the windows had been left open, providing a gentle, cooling breeze in what would otherwise be a warm and stuffy building. The sound of a radio came from the other side of the warehouse. He hadn't had much luck with finding anything of use so went to investigate. As he got closer, he could hear the sound of voices. Rounding a corner, he came to another space, more open than the main shop. In the centre of it, another square table provided space for a till, and two people, one sitting and one standing, were leant on it, in the middle of a conversation. He stood there for a few moments, awkward and unsure of what to do. He didn't want to interrupt two complete strangers but it was near impossible to find anything he needed. Fortunately, his decision was made for him as one of the figures spotted him.

"Find what ya need?" A man, Crow guessed in his late 30's, leant back in his chair and stretched his arms above his head. He was dressed simply, an old shirt thrown over some jeans. He crossed his legs at the ankles in a carefree motion and fixed his eyes on the newcomer. The other person turned around and Crow blinked, unsure if what he was seeing actually existed. She regarded him with a friendly grin and put her arms on the counter behind her. For a few moments, all he could do was stare. He would guess that she wasn't any older than he was, yet she looked at him with eyes that held the experience and turmoil of a whole lifetime. As a whole, she looked relatively normal, aside from a few minor oddities in her attire. What made him gape though, was the long scar stretching down her face. It was thin, so thin it looked almost invisible from where he was standing. Also, he wasn't sure but it looked as if one of her eyes was a different colour to the other. Suddenly, he became painfully aware that he was staring, and turned away sharply, a faint scarlet tinting his cheeks. Both people laughed at his embarrassment. Then the girl looked at him again, smiling widely.

"Don't worry. No one can find anything in this shop."

"You wanna change that? Go ahead, but you're doing it. I want this place cleaned from top ta bottom." He sounded annoyed with her but his eyes spoke of an underlying fondness that betrayed his voice.

"No thanks. You know I wouldn't change this place." She turned back to Crow "Come on, tell me what ya need and I'll help you find it." She left the counter and approached him. Still in a state of disbelief he handed her the list Yusei had given him and followed her back down to the tables. She talked aimlessly to herself as she searched. "I know there's one around here someone...where the bloody hell is it?" Crow smiled, having finally regained control of his mind. Up close, the scar looked even more jagged and raw and he'd been right in his earlier speculations about differently coloured eyes. One was blue and the other, where the scar went through, was mostly purple, some of the blue present in her unchanged eye visible around her pupil. Eventually, both stopped being things of strangeness to him. After all, the girl didn't seem to care so why should he? His thoughts were interrupted as she pulled something out from under the vast piles of junk. "Ah ha, finally. Knew there was one somewhere. She deposited the part in his arms and scanned the list again, quickly moving onto another table and fishing out a box from underneath it. "Here." She held it out and he dropped the part into it before taking it into his own arms.

"So...?" Crow attempted to make conversation. But there was only one thing on his mind, a burning question that threatened to combust and spill out of him. "Where'd...it...come from?"

"It? You mean the scar?" She stopped searching for a minute to look at him, one eyebrow raised. His cheeks reddened again.

"Uhhh, yeah." Before she could answer, he quickly added on, "sorry, I didn't mean to insult you or anything, it's just..." He stopped. What was it just? He had no idea.

"Hey, calm down. Don't worry, no offence taken. Look, it's a long and complicated story so you're just gonna have to make do with ex boyfriend, alright?" He nodded, unable to do anything else. When she turned back to the task in hand, he cursed himself. He didn't know what it was that was making him so nervous, he wasn't usually like this. She found another the rest of the parts in about half an hour, and he was extremely grateful that she'd been there. "That everything?"

"Uhhh, I think so." She rooted around in the box quickly checking everything was there. She seemed happy with it so he followed her back to the counter where the man was flicking through a magazine.

"Anything good on tonight Johnny?"

"Nope, complete and utter tat." He looked up, "finished already? New record for ya." Crow put the box down on the counter and pulled out his wallet, putting the bag on the surface as well. It fell open and one of the parts fell out. The girl picked it up, confused, before looking back to the list she still held in her hand.

"Uhhh, I think this is the wrong one. Your list says model three, this is a five...I think." She gave it to the newly named Johnny and he examined it.

"You're right Miks. Hey, there's one of these on shelf two." He turned back to Crow. "Who told you this was a three?" He told him the name of the garage he'd got it from. Johnny swore loudly, "ahhh, those guys are good at that. They'll do anything for a quick sale. Here, I'll be nice seeing as it was those guys. I'll give you the right one for free. There's one on shelf two. Miks knows where it is."

"Is that just a way of saying, 'go and get it for me 'cause I'm too lazy to'?"

"You know me so well, now go." With a sigh she left. As soon as she was out of earshot, Johnny turned to Crow, smiling "You could do a lot worse ya know." He gestured with his head in the direction of the 'Miks'. Crow didn't know how to respond to that so stayed silent until she came back, part in hand.

"Here ya go." She plonked it down in the box.

He thanked her and paid before starting on the journey home. On the way, he mentally kicked himself for not asking after the girl's name. He thought about it long and hard. The guy, Johnny, had called her 'Miks'. The question was, what did 'Miks' stand for. He guessed it was an abbreviation. Miks...Mikaela? Michelle? Mika? He finally got back, just in time for what would've been the mother of all arguments had he not walked in at that precise moment.

"Hey guys, sorry I took so uuhhhhhhh what's going on?"

"You've just stopped the fight, shortened the war by five years and saved millions of lives." Yusei retorted. His eyes went to the box in Crow's arms and he handed it over as Jack started grilling him about what had taken him so long. He didn't care, names were still rolling around in his mind. He started to think of other names, guys names, names he'd never heard of and didn't even know if they existed. Micky? Mike? Michael? Mikana? Tamika? The question was still burning when he went to bed, and he stayed awake long into the early hours of the morning. He had to see her again. Somewhere, anywhere. He had to know her name. He had to know her, even if it drove him crazy trying.