They don't get her out immediately. The police insist on more interviews, hoping that the meeting with the other her's father and best friend will have jogged her memory. Ruri pretends to be confused, a harmless little girl who's no threat to anyone. She's become very good at playing that role, and so, after she tearfully tells them that she doesn't remember what happened, that her kidnappers drugged her, and that she just wants to go home and see her friends, the police officers let her leave with a shoulder pat she flinches away from and an empty promise to find the culprits.
Finally, finally, she's out on the street again, but she isn't alone yet. The man pretending to be her father is waiting for her, along with not-Yuuto and his mother. Not-Yuuto refuses to even spare her a second glance, his goggles pressed tightly against his eyes. If he wants to limit his own field of vision, Ruri is perfectly fine with that.
They walk in uncomfortable silence. No one restrains her, but wouldn't that just be another trick? If she tries to run, will they drug her again? No, better she wait and watch. The more she learns about this world before making her escape, the better. And this city is so wide and beautiful. Ruri takes in the clean streets, the park where people are milling around in the late afternoon sun and the many children out playing. She sees two girls duelling, their smiles wide and joyful. It's just like Heartland was before. Ruri swallows hard, her throat dry. She won't cry. Not in front of these people.
"I'll make pancakes," not-Yuuto's mother says. "Is that okay, Ruri-san?"
She hasn't eaten anything since she escaped, and she hasn't eaten pancakes in years. Shun made the best pancakes, when they still lived at home and still had the ingredients to make them. She has never wanted pancakes so badly in her life.
"I don't need anything," she says.
The other her's father stops walking and kneels down. Ruri draws her hands up, but he doesn't try to touch her.
"When was the last time you ate anything, Ruri-san?"
Ruri doesn't reply. Once she gets away, she'll find something. Her parched throat tells her she shouldn't put it off too long.
"Can I make a suggestion?" the other her's father asks, undeterred by her silence. Up close, she sees how tired he looks, how there's a pallor to his face that doesn't belong there. He really did lose his daughter, didn't he? He's probably just trying to sell her out to the Academia to get that Yuzu girl back. And if it were Shun, wouldn't she do the same? He only wants his daughter back. But Ruri only wants to go home, and she's going to get there no matter what.
"Ruri-san?"
"What?" The other her's father is still right in front of her, too-tired eyes finding hers. Does he see his daughter when he looks at her? The girl in the picture had ginger hair, much like her father, but her face was the same as Ruri's.
"There's a supermarket right around the corner. We can go there, and you can choose whatever you want. We won't tell you what to get and I'll pay for everything, no questions asked. Would that be okay?"
Ruri… can't actually see any flaws with that plan. She glances at not-Yuuto, who's half-heartedly kicking at a pebble further down the road. He'd probably betray her in a heartbeat. He and the Yuzu girl must have been good friends, so why would he want Ruri here when he could have her? What if it's a trap? But she's so thirsty… Just seeing the store can't hurt, right? If nothing else, she'll learn more about the city.
"Okay," she says. The other her's father smiles. He looks relieved. Because he's worried about her? Or because she's walking into their trap?
"This way," he says, and leads her across one of the city's many busy crossroads. Ruri follows reluctantly. No one is paying attention to her. She could run right now if she wanted to, but she also has no money and they offered to pay for whatever she wanted. It's too good an opportunity to pass up.
The supermarket is exactly like the ones they used to have in Heartland, down to the flower stand to the right of the entrance and the sales bins she spots a few aisles down. On his mother's urging, not-Yuuto takes a cart and pushes it over to her without a word. He's still wearing those goggles. Does he ever take them off?
But Ruri has bigger things to worry about. She makes a beeline for the bottles of water in the very first aisle and picks up a pack of six half-litre bottles, all seals intact. It won't get her very far, but it will last her long enough until she can find more. She licks her lips. Her saliva feels sticky, but as soon as she's out of this store, she can drink.
Not -Yuuto's mother approaches her as she puts the bottles in the cart. "You can drink now, dear," she whispers. "We'll just tell the cashier to scan the empty bottles too. I'm sure they won't mind."
Ruri hesitates. If she drinks now, that's at least one bottle they can't have tampered with, and her throat hurts so badly. The air-conditioning in the store is wreaking havoc on her already chapped lips. She grits her teeth and opens one of the bottles.
It's heaven, drinking again after so long. It must have been over a day since she drank anything, and she finishes the first bottle in just a few gulps. She throws a longing look at the rest of the pack, but she needs to keep something in reserve.
"You can take another pack, if you want," the other her's father says. Well, if he insists... Ruri takes another bottle to keep with her and then picks up a second pack. She'll take whatever she can carry. They'll give grocery bags here, right? Maybe she can smuggle one away.
True to their word, the other three let her choose whatever she wants. She picks out several boxes of muesli bars, a bag of dried fruit, and, because she hasn't had any in ages, chocolate and candy. She'll save that for when she gets back to Heartland. Ruri tries not to think of what the other her's father said, that she's the reason their world got invaded. She tries not to believe that Shun and Yuuto will be safer without her. The Academia can't keep looking for her forever, right? Once she goes back, she can finally see Shun and Yuuto again, and she'll even have chocolate to share with them! They'll love it.
She gets ramen and biscuits, and passes the fruit stand regretfully. Not worth the risk, even if she's been craving apples for years. She almost skips the sanitary aisle altogether, but a large ad for deodorant makes her pause. It stirs a memory, one of the very early days of the invasion. Their small group, then only consisting of herself, Shun, Yuuto and a few of Shun's classmates, being chased by Academia soldiers. Shun pulling her and Yuuto into an empty building, watching helplessly as his friends got cornered. And then, the class president of Shun's class stepping forward, clutching a can of deodorant no one even knew she had, and spraying the soldiers in the face.
Ever since then, they all carried spray cans with them. Even water could be enough to delay an Academia soldier for a few seconds, and deodorant was one of the few things they actually had a decent supply of. So now Ruri turns into the aisle. She makes a big production of smelling the different cans and finally grabs one at random. No one stops her. Not-Yuuto is off to the side, uninterested like he's been throughout this entire trip. Ruri doesn't smile, but she wants to. She has a weapon now.
On a whim, she takes hair dye—a colour a shade lighter and a bit more vivid than her own dark pink. She's learned that drastic changes aren't always needed. Sometimes just the wrong shade can be enough to throw people off.
"You can use the bathroom later," not-Yuuto's mother says. "Have you ever dyed your hair before?"
Really, is there nothing they won't let her buy? "I'll figure it out," she tells the woman. How hard can it be?
Not-Yuuto's mother smiles at her, the kind of comforting smile the adults used to give them. The smile that told them everything was going to be okay, and they'd all make it out just fine. Ruri hates that smile.
She turns away, back to her cart. There's not much more she can carry, not with all the water bottles. Unless… She glances at the other her's father. Then, very deliberately, she turns into the school supplies aisle, grabs a large blue backpack with reinforced sides, and puts it in the cart. No one says anything. When she looks at the man, he just nods and gives her a brief smile.
… Huh.
Ruri finishes her second bottle of water. She now has ten left, and a backpack to carry them in. Really, there's nothing more she needs. She should just get out here and run while she still has the chance. She glances at the aisles as she passes them by.
And freezes. Because the next aisle is a games aisle, and there are…
"Cards," she whispers. They sell duel monster cards here. The Academia soldiers took her deck and duel disk after they drugged her, and she hasn't felt safe ever since. If she has a deck, she can actually defend herself with more than just a spray can. She heads down the aisle, even abandoning her cart for the time being, and reaches for a booster, then changes her mind. The structure decks. They don't compare to a custom-made deck and they definitely don't compare to the deck she painstakingly built herself, but at the very least she'll have a complete and functional deck, not a random collection of forty cards.
"Do you duel?" not-Yuuto asks. Ruri starts. It's the first thing he's said since they left the police station.
"Of course." Everyone she knows duels. The people who didn't sure learned fast when the Academia soldiers came.
Not-Yuuto nods. He stands next to her while she looks at the cards, fidgeting slightly. Out of the corner of her eyes, Ruri sees the adults take a step back.
"What deck do you play?" asks not-Yuuto after a few seconds of silence. He runs a hand through his hair, stubbornly refusing to look at her. "I have an Entermate deck."
Ruri's never heard of that archetype. She takes one of the structure decks off the shelf. "I had a deck that disables special summons. They took it."
"… Oh. I'm sorry."
"Yeah." She frowns at the back of the box. If only she actually knew half of these cards… "What're these?" she asks not-Yuuto. Not-Yuuto takes off his goggles.
"That's a beatdown deck. " He frowns. "It's good, if you want it."
"But?"
Not-Yuuto shrugs. "Not really my style."
It isn't really hers either. She wants something that can get past the soldiers' monsters. "Are there any burn decks here?"
Not-Yuuto narrows his eyes. For a second, he resembles Yuuto so much that Ruri chokes up, eyes burning. Then his face brightens and he stands on his toes to grab another deck. "Here!"
He pushes the deck in her hands. Ruri reads the back. A fire deck… Not quite her usual style, but she can work with that. She turns the box around and around in her hands. No one's stopped her yet… They're letting her have a deck. They're actually letting her have a deck. The store has no duel disks, but if there's one thing the Resistance is good at, it's getting duel disks away from Academia soldiers. Just having a deck of her own, not a stolen one she doesn't know how to use... Ruri feels safer than she has in days.
She doesn't put the deck in the cart. She's not letting go of it right now. Not-Yuuto grabs a few boosters as Ruri heads back to her cart. It's still exactly where she left it, completely untouched. It should be enough to last her a few days.
"That's everything," she announces. The other her's father wanders over.
"You're sure you don't need anything else? Anything you'd like to eat tonight?"
She shakes her head. She has ramen. It's good enough.
"No clothes?"
Her clothes are old and torn, but they're hers. Ruri tugs at the red ribbon that ties her hair together and marks her as part of the Resistance. Shun got it for her years ago, when everyone first started wearing red to distinguish themselves from the deep-cover Academia soldiers. She's not giving that up for the world.
"I'm fine."
"Alright. We can come back if you change your mind."
True to his word, the other her's father pays for everything. Ruri stuffs all the food and water into her new backpack and doesn't let anyone else touch it. She puts her new deck inside her jacket, where she kept her old deck when it had to remain hidden from view. A deck holder would be so useful right now, but she hasn't seen any. Now she only needs a duel disk and she can duel.
"Here," not-Yuuto says when they step out of the store, back into the balmy spring air of the city. He's holding out one of the booster packs he bought. "I'm... Sorry. For earlier. I just miss Yuzu."
"I— Thank you." She stuffs the booster with her new deck. She's not going to let any cards pass her by! "I hope you find your friend."
She really does. These people are so ridiculously nice… If they're luring her into a trap, they're being very stupid about it. The Academia soldiers never talked to her. They only gave her just enough food so she could keep walking and they barely cared whether she could keep up. And now these people bought her food and cards, and they actually seem concerned about her. Maybe they should have something nice. If they find that Yuzu girl, they won't turn her over to the Academia. Ruri blinks rapidly. She just has to stay a little bit longer, just until everything's okay again. Then she can finally go home.