Chapter 2: Goals

"So then she's famous?"

"You can say that…"

Akira nervously answers his new friend's question as he places money in the vending machine. His friend sits down on the red couch in the small resting area as he pops the top of his soda and looks up at Akira.

"Lemme guess, you've got the hots for her right?"

Akira is shocked once again by Tyson's sudden comment and accidentally presses the wrong button on the machine. He swears under his breath.

"Can't say I blame ya though man. She is pretty cute after all; nice hair, easy on the eyes…" Tyson throws his arm over the couch and grins slyly at his friend, "And her body..."

Akira opens the green tea he received from the machine and takes a quick sip. He sighs and looks at Tyson with an irritated look. "It's not like that." He tells a half-truth. "I just wanted to talk to her, nothing more. I doubt she even knows I exist anyways."

"Tsch. Whatever dude. I'm just saying if you don't ask her out first, then I will."

Akira sits down across from Tyson showing clear sighs of annoyance. He slowly increased his grip on the bottle in his hand and a vein throbbed in his forehead. Tyson just laughed at his friend to annoy him even more.

After a brief moment of silence between the two, Tyson shakes his soda and smiles at Akira. Still annoyed, Akira looks up and prepares to make a comeback.

"Don't worry about it Akira."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Akira hisses.

"I'm telling you not to worry about that girl." Tyson smiles "I doubt she'll care to talk to me after I'm done dueling her anyway."

Again Akira is lost. This boy was starting to make him feel slow. "And what does that mean?"

Tyson finishes his soda and crushes the can in his hand. "Aki Izayoi, holder of the Black Rose Dragon. She's on my list. For all that's worth to you."

The boy smiles grins to himself once again as Akira looks at him skeptically. Tyson gets up from his seat and shoots the can at the trash can. He hits the rim and misses.

***

"AACHUUU!"

Aki Izayoi groans as she recovers from her sneeze and does her best to hide her sniffle. Her sneeze catches the attention of her friend and fellow Signer, Yusei Fudo.

"Are you okay Aki? That's the fourth time today. Are you sure you're not coming down with something?" He asks as he approaches her to see if she's okay.

"No. I'm fine. Someone must just be talking about me, though I'm not really sure who would be."

Aki waves her hand throw the air to show Yusei that she's really okay. He nods and walks over to the nearby chair and sits crossing his arms. He closes his eyes and begins to think deeply about something. Seeing this, Aki tenses up and grips her dress.

"Anything?" Yusei asks a simple and straightforward question.

"Sorry but no." Aki looks down at her lap with a downcast expression. She lifts her arm with the birthmark of the crimson dragon and gently rubs it. "I haven't felt anything like that time since we've arrived here. Maybe it was a mistake and the birthmark was just acting up."

Aki looks to Yusei for reassurance but once their eyes met Yusei only shook his head.

"I'm not sure exactly that that's the case. I might've been able to believe you if it was just you who felt anything. However, we both know that's not the case. My mark of the crimson dragon definitely responded to whatever it was back then too. I know it sounds strange, but that feeling back then was similar to the feeling we got from the Dark Signers while at the same time it feels like it could be one of us. That's why even if it means entering this tournament we can't just let this go."

Yusei's words made a lot of sense. After she'd met him in the Fortune Cup, Aki always did kind of admire Yusei. He was a strong and caring person who was also a natural born leader. If it weren't for him, she might not be able to sit around and enjoy duel monsters like she could now. But still she wasn't quite convinced.

"Yusei, even if you say that… something… really feels off. That feeling back then wasn't right. It was so…lonely."

***

Akira looks off into the distance as if someone had called his name. As he came back to reality, he figured it must've looked really odd; a boy sitting down and looking up at the ceiling into the light for no apparent reason. But of course what he looked like never really mattered to him.

"DAMMIT AKIRA! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING!?"

Akira lowers his head from the ceiling to find Tyson standing in front of him. His arms were crossed and he seemed rather pissed to say the least.

"No I wasn't actually. What do you want?" Akira asks blankly.

"They just explained the rules for the tournament dude!" Tyson groans and hands Akira a duel monsters card with a white rose on it. "Hold onto that. That shows that you're in the tournament and that you made it through all five preliminary matches undefeated."

Akira glances at the card in his hand as he stands up. "So is the tournament starting right now?"

"Nah, we can go home for the day and ready our decks for the first round tomorrow." Tyson rushes over to Akira and gets him in a side head lock causing Akira to panic and struggle. "Come on pal, I'll fill you in on the rules on our way home okay!"

Tyson pulls Akira along with him as the exits the waiting area and the building. Much to Akira's dismay, Tyson's hold on him was too strong and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't free himself.

"Hey! Let me go!"

At that moment, their eyes met. As the two of them passed by, Akira and Aki looked deep into each other's eyes even though it was only for a split second. The two gazed at each other with blank expressions as the distance between them grew. Coming to his senses, Akira tries to call out to Aki but it was already too late. Her image had disappeared into the crowd of duelist and was no longer anywhere to be seen. Disappointed with himself for missing his chance, Akira ends his struggling with Tyson and fell into silence.

As the two friends exited the building through the main entrance, a young and wild looking girl watches them from a nearby column. She smirks to herself and calls the first contact on her cellphone.

"Hey. It's Iori. I think I've found what we're looking for. Two guys just walked by and the stone gave a definite reading. Now the question is which one of them has the White Dragon."

The girl seemed like the type that would draw attention. She had long black hair that reached the mid-section of her back with cooper eyes. She was dressed in a short-sleeve black shirt which seemed rather loose but still managed to show her stomach. Her jeans were worn of course, with the left pants leg cut off to reveal her slender leg. To top things off, she wore laced boots but perhaps the most peculiar piece of all was the stone tied to her wrist.

"Okay, I've got it." The girl looks around the column in the direction the two boys went. "I'll test them and find out who has what we need."