The sky over them was blue, so blue that it could take away the breath of one, especially together with the sight of desert in front of them. The rock formations partially looked like an artist had manufactured them, and maybe it really was an artist who was responsible for this - the nature as the highest artist. But if there was to complain something about in this scenery, then it was the sand which flew into the eyes as soon as one moved with more than telegraph speed forward.
And yet she had no idea how Yusei managed to move forward with the D-Wheel. Perhaps it would have been good, would she have taken her own one with her, but then again she still didn't feel courageously enough especially if she had only recently received her driver's license. Perhaps it was a pity about the experience? An experience which should rather be made by somebody who already drove a little longer than her according to Yusei.
She sighed openly as she clung a little bit more to his red D-Wheel while it increased its speed through the desert. Behind themself they let an enormous cloud of dust, what was, however, no wonder if the ground under them practically seemed to consist only of dust.
How long would they still need to get there? It could be that Yusei would have been much faster if she had stayed home, but she is stubborn and would have never let this chance slip by; especially when it was to find out the truth.
Which truth was behind the letter which had brought both her and Yusei here, to remote America?
She wanted to ask him how long it would last until they arrived there but she held back when she looked into the serious face of the young man who steered the D-Wheel.
Finally at the horizon a town came into view, however so far away that no-one could also recognize something already. Only using the silhouettes, perhaps one could have said that it was houses which were there in a wide distance.
The D-Wheel came to a standing abruptly and Aki Izayoi jumped down sweepingly while Yusei was rising thoughtfully as soon as she stood below on the safe ground. It didn't last long before her first question came: "Are you sure that we are right, Yusei?" "Only if this is really Crash Town", he replied calmly, "and this we will only know when we arrived there." "Yes, we have quite some distance still ahead, but..." Thoughtfully she looked down along herself before she reached for a sheet of paper and threw a worried look at it. "The letter doesn't say that it is him who is here. It could also very well be that he already moved away again. He canno-" But she was interrupted but a single motion of Yusei's hand. "No. He MUST be here. I know it. And I will help him. I won't leave him behind again." This she understood of course, but she still couldn't believe that it was all about him especially if he isn't mentioned by name in the letter which she now held in her hands.
Her look roamed over the short lines.
"Yusei-Fudo sama, I have heard of the friendship between you and him and write to you now this letter in due urgency. Please save him. I would like you to come and take him away of this town, because he otherwise could be killed if this goes on as it has up until now."
No name. No name of who exactly they should save. Only a small signature at the end of the letter, of someone called Barbara. An unknown Person. How could she know anything about the friendship between the two anyway? Where did she know Yusei's address from? And why thought this woman that he would die here?
She swallowed at the thought. Dying. He. He really cannot die, not now, not after everything seemed to turn round to the good.
She was torn out of the thoughts, as she noticed a hand on her shoulder and then she looked up to look into Yusei's deep blue eyes which seemed to look at her in a comforting way. "Do not worry", he calmed her in his nearly monotone voice, "we will find him." But his words could not put aside her doubts and he could recognize this in her distorted face. "If it is really him...",she replied bitterly whereupon Yusei only shook the head. "It must be him. But I understand if you.." "NO!", Aki shouted shortly before she caught herself again and continued calmly, "I would prefer if you would be wrong..." "I believe that. But even if you cannot really believe that you still came here with me. Which means that you still think, that a small part of you thinks that it might after all be Kiryu who needs our help." At his name her stomach seemed to move frantically together, so she tried to ignore the feeling. And yet she only whispered: "I don't understand what is the matter here ... how can it be that Kiryu is in danger? Why should he die here?" This didn't make it better.
When she expressed his name she felt as if something in her throat seemed to swell up even further. She didn't understand how it could develop like this. How it could be that Kiryu here now was in danger. Was it so wrong to let him go? But he had looked so happy when he had gone away to find himself and to see this world, now that he was free to do so if he only chose. She also would have done it like that if she had been in his place - no, she still searched for her "Ibasho", her place for herself, her place in this world.
She had a picture of him in front of her inner eye, how he looked like when he left her and when he came on the plane together with Bommer, with the words "Do not worry about me" on his smiling lips, but then this picture was shattered by a loud yell.
Yusei looked up frightened, asked quietly: "What was that?" before he sprinted away with Aki who kept following him until both of them came to a kind of cliff from which it steeply went to below. Under them they could hear the wild cries of men and see how they desperately tried to ran towards the cliff, pursued by another group of men who were rather dressed like cowboys. The loud persons all had prison clothing which was kept in a greenish blue tone on as well as collars.
"Come back! Hold them back, they mustn't escape from here!" "Help ! Someone help us!"
In their despair some of the prisoners pinched themselves to the bald stone wall as if in hope to be able to climb it up if they only tried hard enough to do so but they slipped down again and again. With an almost sadistic look on their faces their pursuers pulled out Dueldiscs, dropped cards on them and watched with a smile on their face as their prisoners turned under sudden pains when electric shockes ran through the collars. One of the men rummaged for a pendant from his trouser pocket and threw it up the cliff in a sweeping throw where it land not far away from Yusei and Aki who watched the whole scene.
"You don't really believe that you can escape us, right?" "No... please stop!" Again a card landed on the dueldisc and the men cried out in pain.
Yusei had seen enough. He has never been someone who endured it long to see someone being in pain, so it was nearly impossible for him not to give way to the impulse to help them.
"What are you doing?", he shouted down and Aki winced spontaneously. Why did the otherwise so quiet boy have to get loud in this situation and attract attention unnecessarily of all things?
"Yusei please ..." she started, however was already interrupted,by one of the men below which answered Yusei his question: "You see this anyway! We only try to capture these prisoners who tried to escape." With these words they went some steps forward to pick up the people lying on the ground and lifted them up to bring them back again. "Let them down!", Yusei insisted, only to feel Aki clinging to him and shaking her head but he ignored her and listened to the answer which came back from the men instead. "Unfortunately, we cannot do this ", they called in Yusei's direction, " but you yourself look like a Duelist. The town welcomes you and if you are good at dueling, you will have very much to do here." Then they turned round, laughing, while Yusei stared after them thoughtfully. Rattling of jewelry woke him when Aki lifted and looked at the pendant thoughtfully before she adressed Yusei and looked at him astonishedly. "Really Yusei... I do not understand why you must interfere.." "But I cannot watch when people are hurt..." "Still. You have heard them, these were prisoners. Criminals which probably must work for their crimes here! You don't want to tell me that you want to free criminals and let them go loose around the town, right?" The young man replied nothing at that especially if he saw that his companion is right with that. It was only logical, but nevertheless a feeling of discomfort didn't let him go, the feeling that something was not quite right here. His look fell on the pendant which Aki let dangle between the fingers of her left hand. It was a turquoise supporter, were three triangles under each other could be seen. The first two were of deep blue color while the last and lower one only was indicated.
"Why this man has thrown this thing up here?", Aki thought it over loudly and Yusei only said quietly: "I don't know" before he continued: "But all will become clear if we finally reach the town." "It is not far any more. One can see it from here already. We can also do the rest with your D-Wheel." With these words she took her seat on the vehicle and waited for Yusei to do this also on his D-Wheel.
In a few minutes the town already came in sight, too. Both of them could recognize the signpost now which was attached in some height over them. "Welcome to Crash Town" was written on it in black, a little faded letters. They drove into the town, only to notice that no human was on the streets if one could call these ways streets anyway, because they simply had been trudged into the sand. At the streets no signposts or street names could be recognized, anyway if one looked exactly one could recognize in the windows of the houses how people curiously looked at the newcomers behind curtains. The feeling didn't please Aki because it reminded her of the days in which she had been called a witch by others and was looked at as if she was a monster. It made her shiver to also meet a certain level of disapproval here, so she imperceptibly clung more narrowly to Yusei. In turn he had been lost in the question why the people here feel the need to hide and it only made his feeling grow stronger that something wasn't correct here after all.
They stopped at the biggest place of the town, in the middle of the intersection of two of the ways. One could see a store with flowers nearby on whose signpost "Classy Ass" was written. They stopped once more and when Aki got off, she looked thoughtfully on the letter, which she took out again. "I have no idea how we have to find the person who has written this letter here if we have no adress at all", she moaned, but she was interrupted by a loud manly laughter. Yusei immediately went and stood next to her and when they looked up, they could recognize three men who came toward them. How the three could suddenly appear here was baffling for the two but Yusei watched them nevertheless with watchful eyes.
"Oh, see see! Someone new has come into town!" "Seems to be quite and interesting boy if you ask me." "That may be, but what interests me more is his little companion!" The man who said the last sentence looked at Aki with a furtive look and she returned this look with an ice-cold one. "Ey, would you happen to want a drink in the next pub?", he asked her, but Yusei emerged and said: "Let her be." "Is she your girlfriend? Well well, do we want to clear that in a duel? Who wins goes out with the little cute girl!"
It was then that Yusei noticed the DuelDiscs which all three of them had strapped on their arms. Before he closed his eyes and replied: "I only duel with real duelists." "What?", all three men asked in a surprised tone of voice, before everyone of them split up and closed a circle around the two. Sealed. The young woman on Yusei's side suddenly wondered if it would be necessary to use her powers to save them.
"That was a nice insult", the thinnest of the men said, "but if you say things as these, it will bring you to hell even faster." "To hell?" "Yes, before you even know it, you will be surrounded by demons." "Just like now?", Aki shot back and the men only growled at her words.
Yusei raised his arm and wanted to activate his DuelDisc when suddenly a female voice shouted: "Stop it! The dueltime hasn't begun yet! This is a violation of the rules of Crash Town!"
From the entrance of the flower shop "Classy Ass" first a silhouette could be seen, before a woman came out of the shadows and apporached the men. She had a tanned skin, just like long and black wavy hair and just as dark eyes. In her arms she held a bouquet of flowers. Immediately, the men stopped in their actions, when the woman approached one of them and let the white bouquet fall into his arms before she stated: "And no do not interrupt the peace of these flowers any longer." Aki looked at her fascinated, when she approached them now and said: "I am sorry if they have frightened you off. Sometimes these cowboys do not know how to behave around a lady." "Do we know you?", Aki asked back and the woman nodded. "My name is Barbara." "Barbara? Then you have written this letter, right?", the crimson haired woman said before she extended and produced the letter in her hand. Barbara threw a look at it before she nodded. "Yes, I have written the letter. Though I rather thought that only Yusei would come here. He has not mentioned that he would bring someone with him." "That is because it was rather spontaneous of me to come with him." "So, you know him as well and want to help?", the black-haired woman asked when she was interrupted by one of the men: "Barbara, do you know these persons?" "Yes. I have invited them here, so they are my guests. And this is why I want to ask you to leave them be. They have a long journey behind them so they need to rest." And as if that has explained all, the man ran back to his companions and told them: "Let's go. These are guests of Barbara." Then they waved to the woman before they went their own way. Yusie and Aki looked at the woman confused before she indicated at her shop with her hand. "Just come in into the good old room. It is hot out here and inside we can have cold drinks and enough shadow. In addition, there are still things I want to discuss with you two."
Yusei and Aki looked into each others eyes hesitantly before they did what Barbara asked of them- they went inside, in the hope that she then would explain to them what she expected of them and what has happened. But especially that she would explain where Kiryu was.