Me: Second chapter's up! I think I was a bit cruel to Rinko and Astral. Imagine; You had a sibling you never knew you had, who died to save your life, but your parents, who loved your older sibling so much, decided to put the blame on you. Now; Imagine your mom died and your father went to another family, with your older sibling the only one taking care of you. But, you were kidnapped, and you can't even remember a single thing about your sibling.

Haruki: I will be quite honest, Ao-san. I cannot see the sadness..

Taimi: Ah-hah! Hide-kun is a heartless monster! You cruel, heartless, emotionless, gentle-manly, polite monster!

Haruki: ...Thank you, I guess? We do not own Zexal in any way possible. Characters belong to their original owners. Please, do enjoy.

-Black Star, Floor 1: Lobby-

Another number hunt had went well for the black haired boy. He managed to get a number from a passerby, who claimed he had no idea it was there. Not just that, be he gained.. quite a bit of information about a "resistance" or "number protection group" from the man he had dueled. Maybe it was worth to report to Rio, who reports to Ryoga, who reports to the boss? Eh. He'd do it after dinner. First, he desperately needed a bath.

He jumped when a voice suddenly spoke up next to him. "Had a rough day, Dark?"

Dark saw his older friend, Akari, standing next to him. He sighed in relief. "You surprised me, Ms. Akari. I thought it was Mishka.. you know how she pops up anywhere at a random time! Usually to me.."

Akari chuckled. Dark was quite a sight for younger women, and that probably explained his group of fangirls. "I think she likes you. Mishka seems to like you a lot, and likes to shove a lot of pastries she steals from the canteen to your face. Then again.." Akari's smile turned into a smirk. "Shikuro-chan might get jealous! After all.. she's close with you and Astral, right? You can't deny that she likes you a ton! Besides, Mishka's a year younger than you, and Taimi's two years older than you.. do you prefer younger or older women?"

Dark blushed uncontrollably. "I-I'm not interested at anyone in the moment!" He denied. But, his softened when he remembered his little brother, Astral. How was he? Was he at White Moon, or was he with the normal people? Hopefully the latter. He'd die if Astral was a duelist at White Moon. Of course, he couldn't deny Astral was strong as a duelist. He had personally trained him, after all. But.. Astral was physically weak. One little playful punch might get him sent to the hospital!

Akari seemed to notice how quiet Dark had become. Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned Astral's name at all. Everyone in the company knew how much Dark loved his little brother. "Shouldn't have said that.. but, who knows.. maybe he's safe with Yuma and the rest! You know how my brother and your brother cling to each other all the time!"

Dark nodded slowly, and went towards the elevator. "Ms. Akari, tell Rio and Ryoga I have something to report to them after dinner, and that I'm really busy at the moment. I'll just take a quick bath, and fix my deck." And maybe he should drop of the number he just got. "Also, can you give this Number card to Rio? You know Ryoga doesn't want any guy too near her.. he'll kill anyone."

"Sure thing. But, I won't be attending the training session with you guys. I'm going to have to help Mishka arrange her deck, and maybe change a few of her cards." Akari said. "But good luck! Then again, you guys are really tough, even when you're just cute little kids."

Dark huffed at that statement, and marched to the elevator, practically ignoring everyone that asked him the most important question; "Why do you look so filthy..?" Well, if the duelist he was fighting was less stubborn, maybe he could have got the number clean, and not covered with mud or even stains of blood right now! Plus, he smelled awful.. Oh yeah. The man he dueled pour vinegar on him, for no apparent reason.

Ugh. He smelled like Taimi's cooking. That woman couldn't even boil water.

Although, he hoped that wherever Astral was, it was either Taimi or Haruki taking care of him. Tairo always told him that Taimi is at the other company, since they were separated when the companies were collecting duelists all around. Seriously, no one would ever want to see something like that happen again. Helicopters flooded the sky, and numerous people in either black or white just scooped up people they deemed "decent". He remembered that it was a school day when that happened, so he wasn't with his brother..

Great. Now he doesn't even know if his brother's at the other company, or simply hiding with the normal people in the outside world. They're gonna have to die collecting numbers in this damn building, which had over ninety-nine floors. And about a hundred soldiers. And maybe had every card imaginable, except for..

Numbers.

He hated those damn cards so much, he wished he could burn them. They were the reason he and his friends were trapped here. They were the reason they were taken from their family. They were the reason why many innocent people died, at the hands of the company's soldiers. They were the reason..

For everything that had happened to his brother.

Who knows what could have happened to him? Maybe he wielded a number card, and a White Moon or Black Star duelist dueled him for it? What if he surrendered it? Would he be spared? What if he was stubborn, and refused to give up the cursed card? Maybe he dueled? He could have won, but as much as Dark hated to admit it, the soldiers of both companies were tough as hell..

"Stay positive, Daruku. It's better to trust Tairo's theory of Astral with Taimi at the other company. Taimi is a nice woman, after all.. she'd look out for him, right? And maybe Haruki too! Haruki is really friendly! They'd take care of Astral!"

"...Daruku-san?"

Dark nearly shrieked once he heard a familiar voice next to him. He noticed that one of his friends, Ethan, was inside the elevator as well. As usual, Ethan was wearing his too-big glasses, had his purple spiky hair combed, and appeared clean and healthy.

Ethan was one of Dark's best friends after all. And he didn't even meet him when they were outside!

Truth to be told, Dark met Ethan in the company, during training session. Ethan was far the most useless duelist around, as others would say. He was very paranoid, scared, and most of all, shy. There must have been something that demanded him to do so, because Dark had literally marched up to him, and demanded that they both train, to make sure Ethan wasn't gonna get thrown out for being a weak duelist.

Ethan was easy to teach, and he got the hang of it in less than an hour. Dark was impressed by his skill, and was surprised when he found out that Ethan played the same attribute as him; A DARK deck. And since Ethan was literally friendless, Dark had somehow made his responsibility to make sure Ethan gets to act like a normal Black Star soldier, minus the mocking for enemies part. Other than that, Ethan literally had no family left, except for his hyperactive cousin, Mishka. He did say that he lost his parents during a little trip, plus, his younger sister. Kinda sad, really.

Tairo, however, was his friend from the outside world. They were close friends, plus, Taimi was really close to Dark and Astral too. Tairo was always positive, like a certain someone, and that was the reason Dark got a bit annoyed at him when they first met. But Tairo was probably always enied that. Being the older sibling, Taimi always denied that. As Taimi was older, she automatically thought that she was more mature than Tairo, her little brother. Tairo used an EARTH deck, while Taimi used a WIND deck. He was good at it too.

Akari was the oldest in Dark's group of friends, with Taimi being the second oldest. She used to be a dueling journalist, until she was captured. She was also a big sister, and was Yuma's sister, which was Astral's best friend. At first, she didn't duel much, since she was being busy with her job as a journalist and all, but she proved to be quite the opponent. She was highly skilled at both the ATK stats and DEF stats of her monsters. Plus, she can quickly swarm her field, and destroy as many cards as possible.

Dark noticed that Ethan followed him to his room. He raised an eyebrow, staring at the purple boy questioningly. "Ethan.. why're you following me to my room? I'm gonna take a bath.. and I don't want anyone taking the wrong idea, ya know!"

Ethan shrugged. "Don't worry. I'll wait outside. I just thought it'd be nice if we walked together to the training room. Tairo and Hidenagi are going together, and you know how I fear Hidenagi.. he's always telling people he'd eat them if they ever badmouth any of us!"

"Uh.. that's not really a bad thing." Dark sighed. "He's protective of all of us, and I don't think that's bad. We are Hidenagi's only friends after all. And don't worry, Hidenagi really doesn't eat people, despite looking like a wolf."

"But still.."

"Just.. stay there, okay? I'm gonna take a bath now, so you better be patient!" Ethan nodded, as Dark ran to his personal room, and rushed to the bathroom. Dark was a bit of a private person, because unlike any of them, Dark never once invited any of them to go inside his room. One would think Dark would be hiding a lot of things teenage boys hide, but those who were close to him actually knew Dark needs privacy.

Because sometimes, the latter would cry and sulk all alone, not wanting anyone to see him in such a pathetic state.

-Black Star, Floor 34: Duel/Turbo Duel Training-

"Just, try not to fall, 'kay?" Hidenagi told Tairo, who was currently shivering while attempting to ride a duel runner. Of course, it was just a duel runner simulator, but still.. that didn't prevent Tairo from being afraid.

They couldn't blame Tairo, he came from a ninja village! So, he obviously doesn't have any experience riding vehicles such as a motor-bike, or a duel runner. The spider-haired boy kept telling Hidenagi that he didn't need to Turbo duel to be a good duelist, but according to the boss, some of the soldiers from White Moon knew how to Turbo Duel.

So, it was pretty predictable that he ordered everyone to learn and master Turbo Duels. Problem was, Tairo couldn't even ride a duel runner without shivering as if he just came out of the freezer.

"It's basically ridin' a bike. Avoid obstacles along the way, too. I'll teach ya Turbo Duelin' later, but first, ya need to learn how to ride the damn duel runner!" Hidenagi said, annoyed. Tairo, having no choice, agreed.

"F-Fine." He stammered. "But I'm only doing this because we all need to learn how Turbo Duels work! I know the basics, but riding these things is an impossible task!" Tairo complained. Hidenagi sighed, and turned on the simulator.

"Race Simulator On. Soldier(s) info required."

"Black Star Soldier #8945: Hidenagi Yuki, and Black Star Soldier #2019: Tairo Shikuro." Hidenagi told the machine. "Difficulty's easy, Speed's slow, and.. environment is.. a forest." Hidenagi added. Tairo stared at him with a confused look.

"Why.. a forest?! I'll run over animals!" He shrieked.

Hidenagi facepalmed. "No, you moron! It's just a simulator, so there's no animals or plants or humans! Besides.." He leaned back a little on the computer, as it prepared to start the duel runner. "I picked a forest, so ya'd feel more comfortable."

Me: Well, that's chapter two!

Ethan: Next chapter; White Moon's boss, plus his assistants, study about the numbers, and make a shocking discovery. Meanwhile, Rinko and her.. "pet", notice something wrong with the fellow soldiers.

Review if ya like!