"It's so good to see you again." Remmy said, smiling as he looked to Ankh, watching the half breed clean up the mess in the room. Thankfully for Remmy, he was fully aware of what Ankh was, meaning that the Spellcaster had no reservations about using his magick in front of the green eyed young man. He could simply cast the bodies away with some form of space magick, and clean the room with water and soap by waving his hands and humming.
"It's pretty good to see you too, homie. How ya been?" he asked, and Remmy shrugged. Ankh noticed that Remmy looked relatively the same as he last time they met. He seemed a little bit taller, and a bit heavier, but he still looked just as good as Ankh remembered. He smirked to himself, finding his thoughts rather amusing.
"Okay. Kinda sucked to hear that you and Hades dipped the day after I join up." he mused, and Ankh chuckled at that, the duo heading downstairs to check on Remmy's mother. "Yeah, my bad onnat. Big Cuz goin' down hit us mad hard. Needed a spa day." he joked, and Remmy rolled his eyes. "It's been damn near a year, what brought yo ass back here?" he inquired, and Ankh sighed, watching Remmy gather his mother as she tried to calm herself down.
"Business. We moved to the Big City and made friends wit the kids of the Signers. Two of em got yolked and we thought it was someone from outchyea." he said, and Remmy shook his head, scratching his grayish brown hair as he blinked his emerald eyes at the half breed. "Shoulda known it was some bullshit. You never learned how to play it cool. Always on some big shit." he mused, and Ankh shrugged.
"I'm just glad I got here before anything happened. Couldn't imagine what woulda happened if either of you got hurt." he mused, and Remmy's mother giggled, smiling. "You always were a nice kid underneath all of that gruff hood stuff." she mused, and Ankh shrugged. He couldn't deny that, especially now with his oddly friendly attitude. He wondered exactly what was triggering it, but he assumed it was being around a friend. "You do seem a bit different. Lot more… civilized." Remmy mused, poking fun at his friend.
When the Kodomo Card Shoppe closed for the day, Yuuki Kodomo smiled at her staff, few as they were. Dharc had taken the day off, as she only needed two or maybe three people to run the shop at full volume. With the Dark Magician, who she still referred to as her 'husband', dealing with the negotiating, she found that her profits were up, as he had quite the convincing presence, something she was grateful for.
Milla had also taken the day off, deciding that she wanted to sleep the day away, as the previous day had been quite a hassle, dealing with children that wanted specific cards for their birthday despite it being far out of their parent's price range. Milla didn't have experience with children, so Yuuki had to help calm the children down and negotiate with them.
However, today was quite interesting, because she had Shurit helping her. He offered to help, saying that he was tired of spending day after day on the couch doing nothing. She thanked him for his help, and taught him throughout the day, telling her older regulars that he was a friend of the family's, specifically Ankh's. Shurit tried not to react to that, as he didn't want to be called a friend of Ankh's, regardless of that being the truth to Yuuki.
"I'm surprised that you actually came down to help." the Spellcaster said, looking to Shurit as they put away all of the displays. The boy grumbled to himself, nodding. "I just didn't feel like doing nothing. That's all." he said, and the older Duel Spirit looked to Yuuki, the human chuckling to herself at the statement. It was as if they were aware of things that he wasn't, or they understood things on a different level. Shurit wasn't a big fan of this, and he frowned.
"Why try so hard to distance yourself from us? I can see that you're going through a lot, but you don't have to make it harder on yourself." he mused, and Shurit frowned as he looked to him. "Why do you assume that you know what I'm thinking, all the time? You're nothing like me." he said, the venom in his town not going over his head. He rose a brow, his eyes looking to the mother of his child, who seemed to be finding this far more amusing than either of them.
"You always talk about how you can't stand Ankh or how you want nothing to do with him, but you just spent the day in Ankh's house, working Ankh's job with Ankh's parents. I really do get it, it's a complete mental clusterfuck that Ankh orphaned you despite being your friend and now he's trying to repent for his sins so soon after committing them. But maybe you should realize that until you choose to leave, we are all you have, Kid." he said, and Yuuki sighed, finding his harsh words a bit much.
Shurit however, realized that he was correct. No matter how many times he had this conversation, or how many times he thought it over in his head, dreamed about it or compared it to other things, what the Spellcaster said was a fact. He was essentially in Ankh's place at the moment, living the calm, carefree life that Ankh did. He didn't hate it, it was just that he couldn't separate the fact that it was Ankh at the center of all of this. The murder of his parents, his rescue from his self destructive lifestyle where he allowed himself to be….
Shurit clenched his fists. He didn't want to think about that. It was awful, and he realized that anyone with a shred of integrity would've done what Ankh and his predecessors did and saved him. He understood that. He couldn't bring himself to get past Ankh's negative actions, no matter how many positive actions seemed to follow them. Even immediately after they fought and Shurit was crushed, he was kind, helping him bury his parents. Parent's he'd still have if he could simply control himself better.
He realized that since Ankh was the core of all of this, the only way he could sway his heart and mind in one direction or the other was to speak to him personally. he'd have to remain here, doing whatever he had to to survive, if only for the chance to look Ankh in the face and speak to him. He had to talk to the man himself, to see if he was going to deal with the young man who cradled him as he cried about the death of his mother, or if he was dealing with the demon that struck down his father in cold blood. Then he could decide if he was going to leave them alone or destroy everyone in Ankh's life, just like Ankh did to him.
When the moon was high in the sky and Ankh returned to the hideout with Remmy in tow, Hades was pretty surprised. "Been a grip, ain't it Sandy?" he asked, remembering that Remmy was the young friend of Ankh's who he called Sandy. He came up with the name because of his appearance, his browned skin and hair looking like sand to him, his odd emerald eyes seeming even more striking with the black clothing he wore. Clothing he noticed was branded with the Black Magicians' iconography.
Remmy folded his arms, frowning at Hades and shaking his head. "I see that yo still a pain in the ass, huh?" he asked, and Hades shrugged. "I see you joined up. Mad surprising." he mused, Selena humming from the background in agreement. The one called 'Sandy' shrugged. "I was gonna join up cuz I wanted to see what Koko got up to all the time, but by time I got the tattoos and shit you up and vanished." he mused, and Hades looked to Ankh. "Why bring him here?" he inquired, and Ankh cast his eyes over the room.
"I don't know what you did today, but I went and saved Remmy's ass from some goons and thought about what we been doing wasting time here." he mused, and Hades nodded. "Lars went back to the Signers and decided to keep an eye on em after hearing about Philip. Me and Selena went and clapped some fools after she got off work. Took out a couple of smaller gangs cuz she needed to blow off some steam. Bad customers or sum." he groaned, and Ankh chuckled.
"Good thing too. With how much of a damn goon you are, we won't need all three of you here at once." he said, and Selena narrowed her eyes before blinking. "Hol' up. You wanna make us the Big Three?" she asked, and Hades looked to his cousin, who nodded. "It's pretty simple really. Me and Hades have lives back in New Domino, so we can't stick around too long. What we can do for you is wipe out all the dumbasses that think they off the shits like us and rebuild the Black Magicians. With Remmy having the balls he do now and you being insane, it should be aight." he mused.
Selena hummed to herself, finding that rather interesting. She would be able to relax, not having to worry about being jumped for wearing her jackets, shirts and such, and in addition she'd be able to hold that vaunted 'Queen of the Broox' title she dreamed up for herself. She looked to Remmy, who she wasn't the most familiar with, and he sighed. "I don't mind but just try and make sure you thorough? Ion want my Moms to be targeted." he mused, and Ankh nodded.
"Of course. You three can spend the day together working out the details of how you wanna run this place, and me and Hades will start taking people out and looking for new recruits. Make sure Cal is told about this too, he's gonna have a lot of work to do." Ankh said, looking to Hades who nodded. "You really are fuckin' insane, Cuhz. Putting the whole hood on Selena's back?" he asked, and Selena looked to her hotheaded friend.
"I'd do a better job than yo fancy talkin' simp ass. How's that Signer hoe you be crying over?" she asked, and Hades sighed, scratching his head. "Low blow dawg, low blow." he said, the group chuckling and laughing with each other, glad that they were finally able to put a plan together.
Unable to sleep, Milla sat at the kitchen table with a frown on her face. She wasn't a big fan of this, fully aware that Shurit still harbored negative thoughts towards Ankh, and towards them for being close to him. She knew that he was a bigger danger than whatever Ankh was dealing with right now, and that upset her. She had spoken to Yuuki about it, who told her that she should just relax and be friendly. To kill him with kindness, but she didn't think she could do that.
Because if she did make Shurit forgive Ankh, she'd feel a bit bad about it, because that was kind of like Stockholm Syndrome or whatever the humans called it. He was wronged by someone, who then took him in and through a long process, did away with that negativity. It was like killing people for having different views, and then praising them once they conformed to what you believed. It felt wrong to her, and even if Shurit weighed his heart and soul and decided to forgive Ankh, she'd feel bad, because she didn't think she could in the same scenario.
Regardless of the situation, she found herself mostly worried because of something different. She hadn't been feeling the best, and wondered if Shurit's presence was wearing her down, her paranoia causing her physical pain and nausea. However, she began to find that that might not be the case, her face warming up when she remembered exactly what her and Ankh were up to before he left, her hand absentmindedly covering her face in embarrassment. She really hoped it was just Shurit making her paranoid.
