EchoGirl: This is, once again I'm afraid to admit, a filler chapter but it is extremely important for the action that's coming up soon! So, yeah, it's not all that long but I'll have the next chapter up soon! Enjoy!

Goldfish: EchoGirl319 does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

A Rose in the Stars

Chapter 25

Damien Bryan sighed audibly as he entered his house. He'd had a busy day; there had been a lot going on at work and he had spent an interesting lunch break with his three female friends: Jenna Whitewood, Nadia Norma and Akiza Izinski – he didn't know whether or not to include Akiza's cousin, Lilith, as a friend or not, he had only really spoken to the woman once.

Akiza. She had been distant today, much like she had been before, constantly lost in thought. Unlike all the times before, however, Jenna seemed to be in on it.

He didn't pretend to understand Akiza, her mood swings and the way she distanced herself from the rest of society – she was like a puzzle, complicated. It was her complexity and… strangeness, even, that had attracted Damien towards the violet-haired woman in the first place.

He remembered when she had first arrived in Danson City. There'd been rumours about her; this depressed young girl who'd just appeared out of nowhere. Apparently, as it was later revealed, she had in fact been born in Danson City and was the niece of Hoshi and Kayla Izinski, Lilith's parents. She'd been living the past few fifteen years of her life in New Domino City. That had caused a bit of commotion, Hoshi was a rather popular man in Danson, he'd been the mayor at one point, and some of the residents remembered his younger brother, Hideo – now a senator in New Domino, a position he'd held for the past fifteen years – and his wife, Setsuko. Some even, Jenna amongst them, remembered their four-year-old daughter, Akiza.

It wasn't her background though that attracted him to her, it was the aura of sadness that she gave off. She wouldn't talk to anyone, besides her family and Jenna, an old childhood friend, and even for a while refused to eat. He, just like many others, had thought her to be mad, that her mind had snapped; the fact that she had constantly been muttering something about destiny and some other words that made no sense to him. Honestly, anyone who babbles about destiny must have something wired incorrectly.

But, with time, she had gotten better. The muttering and isolating was completely gone, yet the inexplicable sadness remained no matter what. And she had been so young, nineteen, barely an adult. He himself had been twenty-two at the time of her arrival and after almost fourteen years of having known her he could not help but fall for the strange, beautiful young woman with her enigmatic personality and endearing appearance: her short violet hair and long bangs, and those cat-like amber eyes. Not like she had ever noticed. The only thing that she seemed to actually pay attention to was the gossip that was currently surrounding that Fudo girl, the Future Queen of Riding Duels, Deli or Diane or whatever the hell it was that she was called.

And then there was their date. It hadn't ended quite the way that he had been hoping, with Akiza running off in tears and all. It wasn't him, was it, that had caused her to react the way she did? And she had said something when he'd kissed her and she'd begun to respond. It was just one word; a name, possibly? It was something beginning with a Y…

"Akiza," he muttered as he entered his living room, not bothering to turn his lights on, "what exactly is it about you that makes you so puzzling?"

A chuckle echoed from further inside the room. Damien was suddenly alert at the sound.

"Who's there?" he called into the shadows.

The chuckling continued. "Ah, yes," the voice spoke, it was quite clearly male, "Akiza; an old friend of mine."

"Who are you?" he called again, though he could make out the shadow of a figure sitting on his couch, "how did you get in here?"

"You do know that she'll never reciprocate your feelings, don't you?"

Damien tensed, afraid. How did this strange person that he was sure he'd never met before know such things?

"I asked you a question," he said, "who are you?"

The man's laughing started up once more, and Damien could just see the his shadowy figure standing up.

"Oh, come now, don't you want to know why?"

More afraid than ever, Damien raised his voice, "who are you? Show yourself!"

The man stepped forward, yet he still could not distinguish his features. All he could see was that he was tall, a few inches taller than Damien, with a rather strange hairstyle and was wearing a dark trench coat of sorts.

"Who I am," the man said slowly, "is of no consequence. Why I am here, however, is."

"And what are you here for?" Damien asked cautiously.

"I'm looking for someone; the object of your unrequited affections, to be precise."

"Akiza?" he asked in shock, he could just make out the man nodding his head slightly.

"Like I said, she's an old friend of mine. I want to find her, and you are going to tell me where she is."

"I don't trust you," Damien told the stranger firmly, though his voice shook, "and what makes you think I'd tell you? I have no idea who you are or what you'll do to her?"

"I'm not going to harm her if that's what you mean. I'm simply dropping by for a friendly chat. And, as to your earlier question, I have exactly what you want: the solution to the, shall we say attitude, of Akiza Izinski. She wasn't always the sad little girl she is now, you know."

"And if I don't tell you?"

"Let's just say that I have more, extreme methods of extracting the information I want from you," it was impossible to miss the pure maliciousness that laced the figures voice.

Damien stared at him for a moment, trying to decide whether this man was telling the truth or not, and also struggling with the looming possibility of being tortured, as somehow he was sure that that was what his mysterious visitor had meant. Finally his curiosity and desire to solve the mystery that was the woman he was in love with got the better of him.

"All right then," he decided at last, "you tell me about why Akiza's attitude, as you put it, is the way it is now and I'll tell you her whereabouts. Deal?"

"Deal," the shadowed figure responded before handing Damien a folded sheet of paper, "I can't say that you'll like it, though."

"Can't be that bad," the brown-haired man replied with a shrug and unfolded the paper. He read the heading and glanced back up at his visitor, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "But this is a birth certificate!"

The figure inclined his head. "Exactly. Keep reading."

Damien's eyes only got wider as his eyes moved down the page. "This is a birth certificate for Destiny Fudo?"

The figure once again merely nodded.

Damien was confused as he read down the page, it spoke of the girl's weight and birth and place and date of birth and such, yet he didn't understand how this was important, how it had anything to do with Akiza. Destiny Fudo's birth, or appearance should he say, had caused wild media speculation; the girl had had just popped out of nowhere after all with no warning or announcement. She had just appeared one day with the turbo duellist champion. The biggest, juiciest piece of gossip, however, had been about the girl's anonymous mother. No one had any idea who or where she was, whether she was dead or alive. But what exactly did her birth certificate have anything to do with what was currently happening.

"Keep going," the stranger urged as Damien scanned the page. Finally he reached the part that the public had been dying to know since day one. The parentage.

The father was obvious enough – Yusei Fudo, the page read. At first it had been widely speculated that the girl had been adopted but later, as she grew older, it became impossibly clear that Destiny was in fact the champion's daughter. The looks and duelling skill gave it all away.

Then finally he reached the part that everyone had been dying to know. The anonymous parent.

Mother, the page read, then, in neat calligraphy, Akiza Izinski.

He read the page again.

Akiza Izinski.

And again, yet the words written on the paper did not alter themselves.

Akiza Izinski.

Stumbling over to one of the sofas, he sat down.

Akiza Izinski, Akiza Izinski, Akiza Izinski.

It all began to fit into place now: Akiza sadness and depression upon arrival in Danson City; her unknown past life in New Domino City; the speculation over the birth of the seemingly motherless child, Destiny Fudo; Akiza's mutterings of the word 'destiny', she had not meant 'destiny' as in fate but rather 'Destiny' as in the person; and finally the kiss they had shared. She said a name beginning with a 'Y'. 'Y' for 'Yusei'.

His mind felt numb. He stared up at the approaching figure, the birth certificate hanging loosely in his grasp. The stranger took it from him and proceeded to tuck it into his breast pocket.

"I never said that it would be pretty."

Damien shook his head slowly. No, the truth hadn't been pretty.

"Now, I take it you'll uphold your end of the bargain?"

After a few moments of blinking, Damien numbly proceeded to tell this mysterious, all-knowing stranger the piece of information he'd originally come for.

It was late when Akiza finally made her way back to her shared apartment, a bag of groceries held in her arms. She would have the place to herself tonight, Jenna had gone out for some sort of all-nighter gangbang that Akiza herself couldn't be bothered going to. She would relish the peace and quiet.

Shifting the groceries she was holding into only one arm, she dug into her pocket for her key as she approached the apartment door; only to find it open.

Intrigued, and slightly disturbed, she pushed the door fully open and stepped inside, flicking on the lights. She gasped at the sight that befell her.

An all too familiar head of elegantly groomed dark red head was visible by the sofa. Her heart fluttered wildly like a caged bird in her chest as that head slowly turned around to greet her with an all too familiar face.

Chocolate brown eyes met jade green and for several moments' silence reigned supreme.

With a loud thud the bag of groceries fell from Akiza's grasp as she stared at the stranger in her living room.

"Sayer?"

To be continued...

EchoGirl: ! Cliff-hanger! And yes, I know I said Bruno would be coming soon and I can assure all you Bruno-lovers out there that you will see him in the next chapter, so, no worries!

Goldfish: You're alive. That's definitely something for people to be worried about.

EchoGirl: You're so mean to me, you know that? I mean, if it wasn't for me you would be dead right now I bet that no one else on the planet would have the physical, mental and psychological endurance to put up with you! Do you know what living with you has done to my mental state?

Goldfish: You had the mental state of a broken washing machine even before I had anything to do with your life.

EchoGirl: Shut up!

Goldfish: It's the truth.

EchoGirl: (sighs) Review.

Goldfish: Yes, review.