Chapter 7

It was raining in New Domino City. In celebration of Leo's win at school that day, he and Luna decided to take Akiza to spend some time at Yusei, Jack, and Crow's apartment. When the trio arrived at the right floor, the twins dropped their stuff off at their place, then headed across the hall to the boys' place. Luna knocked but heard no answer. "Try knocking louder!" Leo suggested.

"How about I just use the key Yusei gave me instead?" Luna retorted.

"Yusei gave you a key?" Leo said dumbfounded. "How come I didn't get one?"

"Because Yusei knows I'm the more responsible one," Luna said seriously. Akiza chuckled.

"Aw, come on! Akiza, you don't think I'm irresponsible, do you?"

"I think you could learn a few things from your sister, sure," she said. Leo pouted.

Luna opened the front door to the boys' apartment and poked her head in. "Yusei?" She couldn't see anyone but she heard mumbling coming from Yusei's room.

When they got close enough, they heard Crow's voice say "I'm gonna go get us some water. Working on this all day has made me thirsty." Crow stepped out of Yusei's room and spotted Akiza and the twins. "Hey! Look who's here!" he greeted. "Guys, why don't we take a break? We've got company." Jack and Yusei stepped out of Yusei's room.

"Akiza!" Yusei said with a smile on his face.

"Hey, you," she said back. She ran up and hugged him. Yusei lifted her in the air and spun her around before placing her feet back and the ground and giving her a kiss.

"Hey!" Leo said. "Were you going to say 'hi' to us?"

"Of course I am." Yusei let go of Akiza, knelt down and gave Leo and Luna a big hug. "Hi, you two."

"Yusei, guess what!" Leo said excitedly. "I beat Sly in my match today!"

"That's great, Leo!" Yusei said. "Sly's your friend who lent me his Eccentric Boy card when I dueled Heitmann, right?"

"I wouldn't exactly call him my friend," Leo said. "He's a good duelist, though. His Spellcaster deck is tough to beat."

"Yusei," Akiza said, "I need some more help with physics. Do you have time?"

"I always have time for you, Akiza," Yusei smiled. "Shall we go in here?" Yusei motioned to his room.

"Yusei!" Leo cried. "Aren't you going to hang out with us?"

"Akiza needs my help right now, Leo." Leo pouted. "But don't worry. We'll still have time to hang."

"Awesome!" Leo shouted.

Crow got Leo's attention. "Leo, while you wait for Yusei to finish helping Akiza, Jack and I went and bought 'Duel Dungeon III' today!"

"'Duel Dungeon III'?" Leo's jaw dropped. "I have been waiting years for that game to come out!"

"Let's play a few rounds then," Crow said.

Yusei and Akiza entered his room and Akiza got out her textbook and notes. Jack held the door open and said "Try not to spend too much time snogging okay?" before shutting the door.


The clouds had been grey for hours and Mr. Izinski had surmised earlier that day that perhaps a storm might be brewing. When he got home from work, he grabbed the mail out of the mailbox and rushed inside to avoid getting wet. "Honey? I'm home!" he yelled as he stepped inside his home.

"Oh, honey! Come inside before you catch a cold!" his wife anxiously pleaded as she pulled him inside. She kissed her husband and helped him get his coat off.

"Thank you, dear," he said before giving her a big hug. "Where's Akiza?"

"She said she was taking the twins to Yusei's after school today."

"Shouldn't she be studying for her physics final?"

"She said she needs help and Yusei is practically a physics expert. Did you know he built that duel runner of his from scratch?"

"I didn't," Mr. Izinski said, completely amazed. "That boy is a miracle. He can do absolutely anything. I should talk to him about becoming a civil engineer. Akiza told me how he wants to work on developing the Ener-D reactor."

"That sounds like a good idea, if a bit odd."

"What's odd about it?"

"Yusei is an incredible turbo duelist. He's the top-ranked duelist in New Domino City! Surely someone like him is destined to climb the ladder even further. Remember when we were kids and used to watch Yugi Moto in his televised matches? Yusei is certainly good enough to become the next King of Games. Why should he settle for anything less?"

Mr. Izinski thought for a moment then spoke. "Maybe Yusei doesn't want to be King of Games. He hates the spotlight. He didn't want to have to be a hero but circumstance made him one. After saving the world twice, do you think maybe he deserves time to figure out what he wants to do?"

"You're right. So what will you say if he and Akiza can't make it work?"

"I won't say anything. I'll just break his legs," he laughed.

"Dear, that's not funny," his wife scolded. Just then, lightning flashed across the sky and thunder boomed in their ears. Hailstones began pelting their rooftop. "I hope Akiza made it to Yusei's unscathed."

"So do I," said Mr. Izinski. "I don't want her driving home if this weather persists."

"Should we go get her?" asked Mrs. Izinski.

"The roads are too dangerous. I'll tell her to stay put until the storm passes or until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" his wife questioned. "Are you sure?"

"As uncomfortable as I am with Akiza spending the night with a group of boys, we don't really have a choice. She had better know her physics textbook cover to cover when she comes home," he said. His wife smiled as he went to fetch the phone.


"Okay, so when you're at the top of a vertical circle," Yusei said, "both your normal force and the force of gravity are pulling down so they're both negative quantities."

"Okay, so it's a negative mass times gravity minus the normal force."

"Yes! See, it's not so bad," Yusei said. "You're doing great. I think you'll ace this final."

"Only because you've been so patient in helping me," she replied before looking meekly to the floor. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said. "Want a hug?"

"Always," she said smiling. Yusei's arms embraced Akiza's shoulders when suddenly, she said "Oh, hang on, I hear my phone ringing." She rummaged through her purse and dug her cell phone out. "Oh, it's my parents. Hello? Hi, Dad."

Yusei got up and left the room and headed to the kitchen to get him and Akiza some drinks. "How's it going in there?" Crow asked.

"Good. She's getting it. I don't think she really needs my help," Yusei said.

"So what's she doing now?" Jack asked.

"She's on the phone with her dad."

"Uh-oh, he's probably demanding to know what the two of you are up to," Crow joked.

"Her father trusts me," Yusei said. "How's the game going?"

"Leo's been trying his best at this boss but he's not making any headway," Crow went on. "Man, that rain is getting heavy."

"Aw, man! I lost!" Leo shouted. "Luna! Can you try to beat this guy? I've run out of tries."

"I don't want to play, Leo. Can't I just give you my duel disk and have you use it?" Luna said.

"I don't know how to use your deck, Luna. Please help me out?"

"Oh fine, if you're going to whine about it," she conceded. "I'll give it a try."

"Thank you, Luna!" Leo hugged her. "You're the best sister ever!"

"Will you still say that if I don't win?"

"Of course!"

"Okay, here I go." Luna's duel disk synced with the game and the boss came up on the screen.

"I am the dreaded Skeleton knight!" the character spoke. "Duel me if you hope to pass through the valley!"

Luna (4000)/Boss (4000)

"I get the first move," Luna said. "I place three cards face down and end my turn."

Leo gasped. Jack spit out his drink. Crow's eyes went wide. Yusei smiled.

"I play the Field Spell Mystic Plasma Zone. Now all DARK monsters gain 500 attack points. Next, I play Spell Card Polymerization! I fuse together Tainted Wisdom(1250/800) and Ancient Brain(1000/700) to summon Skull Knight(3150/1850).

"That's what he did to me!" Leo shouted.

"Now my knight will attack you directly!

"I activate the Trap Card Waboku! Now I won't take any damage."

"Phew," Leo sighed. "That was close. Luna, you're going to have to take out that Skull Knight before you can get at his life points."

"Hush, Leo. I've got a plan." Luna turned back to the screen. "I activate another Trap Card, Bad Reaction to Simochi. Now all increases to your life points will be inflicted as damage. Next I activate the spell Soul Taker. Now I can destroy one monster on your side of the field. I choose Skull Knight. And although it would normally give you 1000 life points, but with Bad Reaction to Simochi, you take 1000 points of damage instead."

Luna (4000)/Boss (3000)

"Finally, I activate the trap Gift Card. This would give you 3000 life points, but instead, you'll take 3000 points of damage."

Luna (4000)/Boss (0)

The Skeleton Knight on the screen burst into purple flames. Leo's jaw dropped. "Y-y-you beat him! In two minutes! On your first try! Without even summoning a monster!"

"He wasn't that hard. You just needed to try different cards," Luna said.

Akiza finally emerged from Yusei's room. "Yusei, that was my dad. He said he didn't want me driving home in the storm so he and Mom gave me permission to spend the night here."

"Oh!" Yusei wasn't sure what to do with this information. His first instinct was to jump for joy at the opportunity to spend a whole night with his girlfriend. Instead, he put on his usual expression and said "Well, I guess we should find you a place to sleep, then."

"Akiza's sleeping over?" Leo shouted. "Can we sleep over, too?"

"Why not?" Crow said. "Let's make a night of it!"

Yusei turned back to Akiza, "And it's totally okay with your parents?"

"Well, my dad did sound a bit reluctant, but he's right. I can't drive home in this storm and the forecast says it won't end until late."

"He didn't want to say anything to me about stuff I shouldn't do?"

"Oh, Yusei. You know my dad trusts you."

"Well that's good to know," Yusei said relieved.

"So I meant to ask," Akiza started, "what were you guys working on when we came over?"

"I guess I should tell you. It's a bit of a long story," Yusei said as he led Akiza to the computer in his room. "Remember those thugs that tried to corner us when we went on our date?" Akiza nodded. "Well after Jack and Crow beat them, their runners were confiscated by Sector Security. We went to the impound to take a look at them and we ran into Vizor."

"Vizor?" Akiza was shocked. "The Accel-Synchro duelist?"

"That's right," Yusei continued. "He said that someone wanted those runners tested so he made a copy of the CPU's data and asked us to look at it. The problem is, it's encrypted."

"Yusei, I know nothing about computers. What does that mean?"

"It means that the data has been encoded such that we can't read it. Jack and Crow were trying to help me break the code."

"Have you gotten anywhere?" Akiza asked.

"Not really," Yusei replied. "It's times like this when I wish Bruno was still around." Akiza recalled when Bruno first showed up and Yusei and he spent days at a time furiously programming. She remembered resenting Bruno for spending more time with Yusei than she got to, but that feeling eventually passed and she eventually warmed up to him and became his friend.

"I'm sure you'll crack it soon," she said before kissing Yusei's cheek. He looked deep into her eyes.

"I'm so lucky to have you in my life," said before hugging her tightly.

"I think I'm the lucky one," she replied. "I love you, Yusei."

"I love you too, Akiza."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Come on, then. Let's go join our friends."

With that, Team 5D's settled down for the evening. When it came time to eat, Jack made shrimp and sushi spaghetti. Everyone gave him a funny look when he served it, but found it rather appetizing once it was smothered in tomato sauce. Afterward, they all began falling asleep while watching a silly movie that Leo chose, and they all began to dream. The storm didn't wake anyone. They were far too comfortable. Yusei hoped that every day from here on could be half as good as today.