It's the first day of Battle City, and already things are heated up to hell. Of course, people had seen crowds this large in Union Square before, but no one currently present could remember a time when traffic was diverted away from 14th street, and the lack of honking horns and daring jaywalkers almost getting run over by semi-trucks was conspicuous and disconcerting to everyone. At least, it was for a few seconds, until they all got used to it and immediately took advantage of the extra space by filling every spare inch so they could watch the duels in progress.
There are two duels going on at the moment; one of them is outside, in the actual square, the other inside of the Virgin Records across the street. Virgin, not only one of the first places to actually sell Duel Disks, turned out to be a good arena for public duels once the Disks had been bought. The open floor above the escalators provided a convenient space for Solid Vision that could be seen from all parts of the first floor, once the shelving units had been rearranged, and from below, when they stopped the escalators and used them as seating for spectators. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best indoor arena in the neighborhood, and it was one of the only stores that welcomed the swarm of duelists besides Forbidden Planet. It was also the store that had given Esper Roba's siblings permission to perch on top of the building so they could watch the duel without getting lost in the crowd.
Through his binoculars, his oldest younger brother, Enzo, watches the duel between his brother and that blond guy. It's hard to give Roba (Roberto, actually; Roba is a stage name) the information he wants when he has to talk so quietly into a device that comes out static-y in the earpiece it connects to no matter how carefully he enunciates. But quiet he must be, because they're being watched by a Virgin employee who was sent up with them to make sure they don't do anything stupid. Enzo resents it a little that they management doesn't trust them just because they're a group of little kids, but at the same time knows that they came up here to help their brother cheat in a tournament that the store's corporation is sponsoring, and therefore doesn't feel entitled to his anger. He's still angry, of course, but he doesn't do anything about it besides grudgingly accept the presence of the chaperone and try to cheat as subtly as possible.
His irritation disappears when his brother breaks out his trump card, Jinzo. Now there's no way he'll lose! If he wins two duels in a row, it'll be the start of an awesome winning streak! Everyone will be blown away! Down below Enzo can see that his opponent is frozen. He hasn't drawn his next card even though it's his turn, and he's not even looking at his hand! Actually, he seems really mad, which is a little weird. Curious, Enzo turns up his listening device, which was for some reason on a very low volume, so he can hear more clearly what the problem is. The sound comes in with a crackle of static.
"—fuck did you just call me?!" Joey Wheeler, the opponent, yells into his ear. Down on the ground his actions are just as aggressive as his words; Enzo can see him clenching his fist and shaking it in his brother's direction. "You askin' for something? 'Cause I'll kick your ass, if that's what you want! Huh?!"
Roba's face falls from it's triumphant smirk into a bemused frown. "I didn't call you anything," he says. "I only said I was summoning a monster."
Wheeler isn't having that. "Don't even try to backtrack now, I heard you callin' me ginzo!"
"Woah, I was just-"
"You were just what?" Wheeler's voice comes through as a cloud of fuzz in Enzo's earpiece, and he's shouting so loudly that he has to turn the volume down every time he takes his turn talking. "I didn't do nothing to you, buddy, so let's keep the commentary a little friendlier than that, okay?"
Visibly relieved that he is no longer being threatened, a tiny half-smile returns to Roba's face. "Yeah, okay…as I was saying, Jinzo is summoned in attack mode. Yeah."
Just as he was about to regain his temper, Wheeler loses it again. "Didn't I tell you I'd kick your ass if you called me that again?! How did you even know I'm Italian!?"
"You're Italian?"
"Yes! What, you don't think I am?"
"I just, your name is Wheeler, so I didn't think-"
"If you thought I was something else, why are you calling me a ginzfghlgzzzzphhphhzzz—"
Enzo's earpiece hisses suddenly, so loudly that he has to pull it out of his ear. It's okay for now, they're not dueling anyway, so he doesn't put it back as soon as the sound is back to normal. He feels bad for his brother, getting caught in such a weird argument; he doesn't even understand what Wheeler is so mad about. That's something his mom used to call her parents and her brother all the time back when they were alive, and it never upset them at all. Enzo doesn't know what to make of it, but he hopes the argument ends soon so he can listen to what's going on without risking this guy breaking his eardrums every time he screams.
