Chapter 2: Blast from the Past – Old Memories, a Team's Bond

Laying Down the Law: Avoiding Bruises

Renei managed to wake up without getting tangled in the sheets again, and was able to find a hairbrush without too much trouble. Before long, she was fully awake and dressed in the Enforcer's uniform of jeans, tank top, and leather vest with her hair up and out of her face. Crow swaggered in as soon as she was dressed and said, "All right, today we've got a turf battle against Team Black 'n' Blue!"

Renei groaned and said, "Really? That's their gang's name?"

Crow nodded with his usual grin and said, "Yeah. I like it. They're gonna be the team that's black and blue after we're through with them, after all."

Renei covered her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "How did I know that was coming?"

Crow shrugged and asked, "Ready?"

She glanced at him from between her fingers and replied, "As I'll ever be. Let's go."

Crow punched the air and said "Okay, let's do this! We're gonna meet up with the rest of the team there!" With that, he took off outside, and Renei soon heard the familiar revving of the Blackbird's engine. She grabbed her deck and duel disk, then walked out to find him waiting for her. She hopped up behind him on the bike, and they took off to the site of their next turf battle.

When they arrived, they only found Kiryu waiting for them. The gray-haired young man threw his arms out as if to say "Where the hell've you guys been?" Crow parked and hid the Blackbird, then walked up to Kiryu with a cocky grin. Renei trailed behind him.

Kiryu glared at them. "You're late. Jack and Yusei are already out looking for our opponents." He looked around and said, "This must be the building where Team Black 'n' Blue is hiding." Renei saw his fists clench and he spun back around to face her and Crow with a fierce smile. His expression seemed more feral, and again, Renei was reminded of her misgivings from yesterday. She pushed them away, though, reminding herself that she needed to focus as Kiryu said, "We're so gonna crush all of them!"

He turned to peer up and down the dark, grungy halls while Renei and Crow waited for more information. Crow looked pretty pumped and asked, "So what've you got, Kiryu? Who's the leader?"

Kiryu shrugged. "Oh, I heard their leader is pretty strong, but no one knows who he is. Well, still no match for me." He gave a little laugh as if the idea that anyone could be as tough as him was ridiculous. Never mind the fact that Renei had beaten him yesterday. Their leader looked at them with his more usual expression of excited determination and said, "Anyway, don't get beaten 'til we conquer this area! We can't say we've conquered all of Satellite unless we take over every single area. And I, for one, am not gonna quit until the job's done!"

Renei waved her hand. "Yeah, yeah, we know the drill. Where did Jack and Yusei start looking? I don't wanna go over places they've already been."

Kiryu pointed to the left where a metal door could be dimly made out. "Jack and Yusei are looking around in the basement area. I'll head upstairs! You and Crow check out the first floor." He began heading for the stairs and tossed back over his shoulder, "Duel with everything you got!"

When he'd gone up the stairs, Crow gestured. "I'll go outside and check for any hidden exits. You got this?"

Renei nodded. "I'll sweep this floor. If I need help, I'll holler." She gave Crow a cheeky grin and added, "I probably won't need any help, though. I am an Enforcer, after all."

She set off to the left, carefully examining the piles of junk lying next to the walls for cleverly disguised hiding places. At the end of the hallway, she found something that looked like a wooden door lying on the ground and heard what sounded like somebody breathing hard. After an audible gulp interrupted the harsh breathing, she grinned and lifted it up to find a guy just a little younger than she was wearing a leather jacket with wool collar and cuffs and a red and white baseball cap. He gave a yelp of surprise as she grabbed him and hauled him upright by the jacket. Stumbling around to face her, he said, "I… I wasn't scared, you know!" His trembling voice put the lie to his words.

Renei jerked her chin at him. "What's your name?" Her voice was brusque, but not unkind. She didn't need to bully him into submission, after all. She only wanted to duel him.

He looked at her more closely, and the fear was replaced with a little confidence. "Arashiyama. You're a chick?"

She cocked an eyebrow at him and said "Obviously. You're part of Team Black 'n' Blue, right? I'm an Enforcer, so let's get this over with."

Arashiyama nodded and leered at her. "You look pretty weak to me. Show me what you got!"

She shrugged and pulled out the special duel cuffs that would overload the loser's duel disk. With a lightning-fast flick, she had it connected to her opponent's disk before he saw what was coming and attached the other end to hers. His eyes widened in surprise, but he got himself under control and began muttering under his breath. From where Renei stood, it sounded like "I think I can beat you!"

It turned out that he couldn't. He played a mostly defensive game and couldn't even touch her Life Points once. When his Life Points finally hit zero, the cuffs delivered a jolt that fried his disk's internal circuitry, and he yelped when it gave a little pop and started smoking. Their job finished, the cuffs opened and Renei coiled it up.

"And that's that. Go find somewhere else to play, Arashiyama. I've got more Enforcing to do."

He looked at her with frightened eyes, but tried to smile and held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "H-hey… You should've told me you were that good before we dueled!" His voice had taken a wheedling tone, as if he was about to start kissing ass in order to get on her good side. Renei just looked at him with disdain and pointed down the hall, then raised her eyebrows significantly. He got the message and booked it out of there.

She headed the other way to check for other members and found Crow, dusting off his hands. He raised his hand in greeting and said, "Hey, did you beat one of 'em?"

She nodded and replied, "More like wiped the floor with him. He took off. You?"

He grinned and said, "Nah. There might be more of them on this floor. I'll hang back and keep looking!"

Renei looked past him to see some stairs. "Okay. I'll go see if I can find more up there and find out how Kiryu's doing." Crow gave her the thumbs up and she began pounding up the stairs.

When she reached the second floor, she heard the sounds of a fight and immediately headed towards it, apprehension making her adrenaline rise. Just a little ways down the hall, she found Kiryu and another guy wearing a leather jacket with wool lining going at each other with their fists. Kiryu ducked under the other guy's swing and spotted her.

"Renei!"

That moment of inattention cost him, as the other guy caught him square in the ribs and sent Kiryu sprawling on the ground, gasping for air. Renei pulled out the duel cuffs and let a length of it slide out in case she needed to use it as a weapon. The other guy faced her with a sneer, then kicked Kiryu.

"Oh, look, your girlfriend's here!" He laughed and kicked again, drawing a grunt of pain from the downed Enforcer. Renei winced, but didn't move to attack. The other guy looked a lot stronger than her, and she had a feeling that if she tried going toe to toe with him, she'd end up on the ground desperately trying to pull in air just like Kiryu was right now. Instead, she watched and waited for an opening.

The other guy laughed and said, "Hey, if you wanna save your buddy here, y'know what you gotta do!" He gestured for her to come at him.

Renei snorted. "I got a better idea. How about you go get your disk and we'll duel for him? That way, I won't catch crap from my mom for hitting a girl."

The other guy's face darkened at that, and he started for her like he wanted to pound on her, too. She bounced back a few steps and activated her duel disk, the holographic lights dancing.

"Or are you afraid of losing to little ol' me?" Renei continued to taunt him, knowing that she just needed to buy Kiryu enough time to recover from the punch. To her surprise, though, the other guy straightened and said, "Ok, deal. And when I win, I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, too. Give me a sec."

He walked over to a pile of junk and pulled out a beat-up duel disk, then slid it onto his arm. As soon as he activated it, he said, "Heh! Now it's your turn to go down!"

Again, Renei flicked out one end of the duel cuffs, neatly catching his duel disk, then attaching the other end to hers. He looked surprised for a moment just like Arashiyama had before, then scowled. She ignored him and drew.

The duel was unexpectedly easy for her to win. Before long, she'd overloaded his duel disk and had the duel cuffs back in her hand. Kiryu had mostly recovered, and by the time the other guy had thrown off his duel disk and lunged for Renei, the gray-haired young man was able to fling himself at her attacker. They fell to the floor struggling, but Kiryu soon got the upper hand and had his forearm pressed into his opponent's throat until the guy started to choke.

He leaned in close from behind and said with a hard-edged voice, "What was that about beating the shit out of my Enforcer?"

Renei stood out of reach and stared in horror as Kiryu continued to choke the guy. She could see that Kiryu's victim was trying to say something, and she shouted urgently, "Kiryu, let him breathe!"

After a moment of hesitation, Kiryu let up the pressure on the other guy's throat just enough to let his opponent pull in a gasp of air and start coughing. He managed to choke out a few words in between coughs.

"Take him and go… Our leader will sort out the both of you anyway."

Renei said, "Let him go, Kiryu, come on. I think he's had enough, right?"

Kiryu nodded and released the guy, who fell to the floor and continued to cough. "Sorry, Renei. I got a little carried away."

Renei let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and said, "That's okay." For a second, she'd been sure Kiryu was going to keep choking the guy until he stopped struggling, but felt relieved now. Even if these guys were their opponents, she wouldn't feel right about killing any of them. They dueled in order to avoid that kind of thing, after all.

Kiryu turned around and snarled down at the guy viciously. "You little punk, sneaking up on me like that! How about we duel fair and square and see who wins then, huh?!"

The other guy just laughed weakly. "Ha! You should be more careful next time!" His voice, rough as it was from his near-strangulation, managed to convey deep contempt perfectly. Kiryu balled his fists and stepped forward, growling, "Why you little…!" Renei grabbed his arm and said in a low voice, "We can't afford anybody getting hurt any worse. What are we gonna do if Securities starts looking for us for real? You beat him already, so let it go."

Kiryu shook her off and said, "Renei, you go ahead! I'm gonna settle this right here, right now!" He started for the other guy, who'd managed to lever himself up by leaning against the wall.

Renei grabbed Kiryu's arm again and said, "Think about the goal, Kiryu! We're supposed to control all of Satellite, right? We can't do that if we're hiding from Securities for beating the crap out of this asshole. Get a grip on yourself, alright?"

Kiryu stood still for a moment, then nodded and relaxed. "Alright, I got it, Renei." He went back into leader mode and added, "Now go ahead, and I'll get the others."

Renei looked at him searchingly, then nodded before heading off down the hall to the left and going up the stairs she found there. This time, she went more slowly, trying to stay quiet. The next floor was quiet, and as she carefully searched the piles of junk, she began to doubt that anyone was up here. Maybe the leader had already made his escape?

A voice made her jump as it said curiously, "Hey, wait a second… Aren't you from the other team? Did everyone lose already…?"

Ahead of her, a door opened and a young brown-haired kid stepped out. He also wore the leather jacket with wool lining that seemed to be Team Black 'n' Blue's uniform. She stared at the kid in surprise as he walked toward her and continued speaking.

"That must mean you've made it to the leader… me, that is."

Renei broke out in laughter. "Seriously? You're just a little kid! You mean those goons take orders from you?"

The kid flushed angrily, but said calmly, "I won't let the team down. So come on. Let's duel."

He activated his duel disk and stood there waiting for her. She laughed again, but stopped when she realized this kid was serious.

"Alright, little boy, I'll play with you. But we're playing by grown-up rules, so that means I'm going to use this."

She flicked one end of the duel cuffs onto the kid's duel disk and had the other end fastened to her own disk. He glanced at the cuffs and said, "Yes, I'd heard about these. It's an interesting way to keep your defeated opponents from challenging you again. I think I prefer my gang's way, though, which is to beat our enemies black and blue." He gave her a slightly scary grin then, and Renei felt shivers go up her spine. "Pain is a wonderful deterrent. Maybe instead of using these duel cuffs on duel disks, you should use them on the people you fight."

Renei scowled and said, "Are you going to talk all day or actually duel me?" Her voice came out harder than she intended, a reaction to the little shivers of fear she'd just experienced. At the tone of her voice, the kid's expression changed to one of pleading defenselessness.

"Go easy on me, please?"

It was a sudden switch, and she wondered if she'd scared the kid. Renei didn't want to go easy, but he was so much younger than her, and it would bug her if she didn't play with a handicap when it came to a serious turf battle like this. Kiryu would probably flay her alive if she agreed to go easy on the kid, but she didn't feel right just going at this kid full out without giving him some kind of advantage.

With a sigh, she said, "Fine. What do you suggest we use as a handicap for me?"

That slightly scary grin was back on the boy's face, and he said, "How about we use a special rule? Every turn, we each draw two cards?"

Renei scrutinized the kid for a while, trying to figure out what his angle was. She'd heard of a rare monster made up of five parts that could win a duel automatically if you held them all at once, and maybe his deck focused on forcing opponents to deck out. Even though her conscience said to give this kid a shot at winning, this kind of advantage probably played right into his deck's strengths and was therefore an unfair one.

"Kid, what's your name?" Renei asked this to buy a moment more to consider.

"I'm Hiroyuki."

An unfair advantage, huh? Maybe not. Two cards per draw means twice as many chances to pull a card I want. I'll just keep my head and ride this out, just like always.

Going against her instincts, Renei nodded and said, "Fine, Hiroyuki. Two cards every draw. So let's do this."

They began the duel. Hiroyuki took the first turn and drew two cards. The duel went on for a long time, but eventually, Renei managed to beat him without decking out. During the middle of their battle, she'd had a horrible thought that he might own the five pieces of that monster, but in the end, he either couldn't gather all the pieces or didn't own it.

When she won, the duel cuffs overloaded his duel disk, and Hiroyuki flung it from him with a yelp. He looked at her with tears in his eyes. "Aw man, I lost!" He sniffled for a bit, making Renei feel bad. She almost wanted to walk over to him and comfort him, since he looked so pathetic in that oversized coat, trying not to cry in front of the person who beat him.

After one big sniffle, he bravely said, "You're pretty good." Another sniffle, and he began again. "Everyone said I should be the leader 'cause I'm so strong, but… I'm not sure if I agree anymore…"

He looked up at her with big, tear-filled eyes. "I hope everyone will believe me when I tell them how good you were. Anyway," he sniffed, "I'm going home now. Bye."

With that, he walked dejectedly off. Renei wasn't normally the motherly type, but something about this kid's sadness touched her. When he disappeared down the stairs, she threw up her hands and was about to go after him when she heard him shout frantically, "Clock! Arashiyama! Anyone! Hurry, go upstairs and beat that weakling black and blue!"

That little shit! All that was just an act to gain my sympathy and let my guard down!

Renei heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and frantically looked around for an escape. She didn't know where the rest of the Enforcers were, and despite her dueling prowess, she was still female and no match for a bunch of guys set on literally pounding her into the dirt. She had just spied a door and was about to dive through it when a strong hand clamped on her elbow. She spun with a snarl, ready to lash out and fight for her life when she noticed the giant shock of orange hair and the M-shaped Mark on a wide forehead.

"Crow!" His name came out as almost a sob of relief, and she started laughing at her idiocy while she leaned on him, sounding a touch hysterical. He gingerly patted her back in bewilderment until she pulled herself together and stood up straight. Jack was there, too, standing with his arms crossed and eyes closed until she'd composed herself.

Crow looked at her worriedly, and asked with apprehension, "You won?" Renei grinned weakly at him and nodded.

Crow pumped his fist. "All right! After all that talk about how strong their leader was, I gotta tell ya, I was a little nervous!"

Renei just shook her head. "The only thing strong about that kid was his acting skills. You should have seen him turn on the waterworks. He had me taken in, too."

Crow looked puzzled and said, "Wait a sec… Was that kid that just passed by their leader?!"

Renei nodded again, and Crow's puzzlement turned into astonishment. Before he could launch into exclamations declaring such a thing to be impossible, Jack spoke up.

"Age doesn't matter. Just skill. That's what dueling is all about. Especially here in the B.A.D Area."

That shut Crow's mouth and set him to thinking, while Renei rolled her eyes. Jack liked to make such kingly pronouncements and had the timing mastered to perfection. It was a carefully practiced act on his part, and all the Enforcers knew it. He felt he was destined for greatness, and spent his time filling the role.

Finally, Crow admitted, "I guess that's true. We're all who we are today because of dueling."

They all stood quietly for a little bit, reflecting on how dueling had shaped them in various ways, until finally, Crow clapped his hands together and ended the solemn moment. He said, "Okay, let's meet up Kalin and Yusei and get back to the hideout."

Jack nodded and set off without a word, leaving Crow and Renei to follow along behind him.


Author's Note: You mean you've made it through this ridiculously long chapter? Wow, here's some pudding for your efforts, I appreciate it.

So in my head, Team Black n' Blue is made up of a bunch of guys who call each other brothers despite having no blood ties. They took in this adorable kid and he's now their figurehead leader/mascot. They rely on physical intimidation to keep other duel gangs off their turf rather than their skills, hence their team name.

Isn't it nice how almost everyone in Yugioh accepts a children's card game as the best way to solve all disputes and problems, and then sticks by the results?