A full day had passed since they had come to this dimension. Finding duelists had not been as easy as Akaba Reiji had hoped for. In fact there had been a small complication during their dimension hop and it had split the group. A minor inconvenience. Their duel disks had a means for communication which Reiji had used to inform them all about their situation and not to worry, 'we'll cross paths soon enough and to take this opportunity to go look for allies.'

"What a crock of bull." Sawatari Shingo turned his disk off and lowered his arm. "I guess even the great Akaba Reiji makes mistakes." He gave a pointed look at Akaba Reira, who clutched his toy bear and hid behind Serena.

She laid a reassuring hand on the child's shoulder and scowled at Sawatari. "Don't bully him because of his brother's mistake. We should do as Akaba Reiji says and go find the others as quickly as we can. We have to save Yuzu-." She paused and glanced at Sakaki Yuuya. "-and the others from the Professor and Academia."

"Yeah..." Yuuya echoed and walked past the three, looking up at the elevated areas of the City. The street where they had materialized was empty, thankfully, but something about the place made Yuuya feel uneasy. It felt like they were being watched. "We should get away from here..." At the same time, his stomach gurgled loudly. Embarrassed, he lowered his head. "Eheh..."

Sawatari then pointed at Yuuya. "An excellent point your stomach makes, Sakaki Yuuya! We should go find some food. Heroes like us need our strength!" He walked past the Pendulum duelist, clapping a hand onto his shoulder. "Now the real question is, where are we going to go?"

The group looked left and right, but the street was barren, consisting only a few rundown buildings and what looked like the remains of a gas station.

"Did Academia do this?" Serena wondered, narrowing her green eyes at the state of the block. "Were we too late?"

"No...Nii-sama said that Academia had not invaded Synchro yet." Reira's voice was quiet but with the silence of the streets, he might as well have been yelling. He pointed towards the gas station. "There may be something over that way."

Sawatari didn't look too convinced, but he shrugged and started off in the direction that Reira had pointed out anyway. "Anything to get away from here."

Yuuya and Serena looked at each other, and nodded. The Academia duelist gave Reira a slight encouraging push forward. "Let's go, Reira-kun."

"Yes..."

And it turned out that Reira had been right, just a few blocks north of the gas station they found a small pub. The interior was warm, customers chattering among themselves and drinking out of mugs. Some of them had interesting looking marks on their faces, yellow in color in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

"I'm not so sure we are allowed in here," Serena said, glaring at a patron who was leering at her from across the dingy room. He immediately went back to talking to his dining buddy.

"We'll find out if that's true or not in a moment," Yuuya took a deep breath and marched right up to the counter. Placing his hands on the surface, he cleared his throat to catch the attention of the pub's host. "Excuse me!"

The man, who had been wary of the small group since their entry in his establishment, set down the glass he had been cleaning and picked up another. "What do ya want, kid? Did ya get lost on th' way ta school?" He was a man who appeared to be in his early 50′s. He kept his graying hair tied back in a low ponytail, and a pair of horn-rimmed glasses balanced themselves precariously over the bridge if his nose, barely held together by a small piece of tape. "You shouldn't be here. You folks look too nice ta be in a place like this." He moved away, going towards a customer that was flagging him down further down the bar and refilled the man's drink.

"Eh...uh..." Yuuya waited for the man to come back, glancing back at the other Lancers nervously. Sawatari was starting to look impatient and Serena seemed to be making small talk with Reira. The host finished with his costumer and came back towards him, looking very much annoyed.

"Didn't ya hear me, kid? Scram."

Yuuya shook his head. "We need directions. As you said...uh...we are kind of lost...and kind of looking for somewhere to eat...Won't you point us the way, uh, sir?"

At this, the host's eyes softened for a moment and as quick as it had been there, it was gone. Yuuya thought that maybe he had imagined it. "Fine, fine. Sit yerselves down anywhere you'd like. I'll get th' missus ta make ya somethin'."

Shuffling back to the group, Yuuya gave them a tired smile coupled with a victory sign. "Let's sit down guys."

"Took your sweet time, didn't you?" Sawatari shrugged and brushed past his once-rival to a free table set up near the far wall. Plopping down on a worn seat, he rested his elbows on the table, glaring at the other patrons.

Yuuya facepalmed and sighed. 'This is gonna be a long day.'

A/N: So I started writing this around episode 53. Interestingly enough, the working title was 'Trust Me (and Pass the Salt)' and I was going to angle it on Sawatari's initial distrust in Serena. I wonder what happened to that idea...