When All Was Lost...
Chapter Twenty-Two
22
~Flash Back~
"I don't know about this, Rally..." Nervin, a bandanna-headed friend of Rally's held heavy doubts since my arrival. They seemed to have a little crew that hung in this abandoned station, including Tank, a heavy set teddy baear of a man, and Blitz,the stero-typical nervous nerdy type. They kept their distance from me while Rally patched up my cuts and bruises.
"Come on guys, I couldn't just leave her to sleep in the alley." Huffed Rally as he wrapped up my wrist. I seem to have sprained it when I fell upon my arrival back in Satellite.
"We're still talkin' about a stranger here, Rally!" said Nervin, grumpily crossing his arms.
"But Nervin, she seems to have Amnesia or somethin'."
"Amnesia, huh?" he scratched his chin in pondering,"I see...that's a tough one..." he sighed,"And we don't even know her name?"
"She said she can't remember..." Rally sighed,"But I swear I saw her before..."
"Yeah...she does look kinda familiar..." Nervin pondered.
"Anyway according to what she did remember...apparently she is from here, and she came looking for someone. A friend."
"A friend, huh?" Nervin scoffed,"How do you know we can really trust her?"
"Well...I don't exactly." said Rally,"But she's a girl and she was hurt and I was there."
"Hmm..." Nervin sighed, he seemed to feel a bit guilty.
"You ought to be careful who you choose to help, Rally." said Blitz,"I gotta bad feeling about this."
"Maybe so Blitz,"said Nervin,"But you always got a bad feelin'..."
"He might be right though." said Tank,"We can't just trust everyone."
"Will you guys knock it off!" Rally snapped,"You might scare her off!"
A muttered apology came from the group of skeptics
"All right...let say we do decide to help her..." said Nervin," How do you suppose we do it? Amnesia is tricky business..."
"Hmm...good point." said Rally as he pondered for a moment he noticed something attached to my jeans.
"Say...is that a dueling deck?"
"Oh..." I blinked and pulled the deck from the holster,"Yeah...it seems so."
"That's it!" said Rally clapping his hands with glee,"We'll duel her!"
"Say what!?" Blitz looked confused and exchanged gazes with tank.
"Yeah they say a duelist will find their true self through dueling!" Rally beamed,"She has a duel deck...so clearly she's a duelist!"
"Y'know...it might not be a bad idea..." said Nervin," I mean it was getting pretty boring around here anyway."
"That's true..." said Blitz,"Surely no harm could come from a friendly game to kill some time."
"Yeah, I'm in!" said Tank
"Whattaya say,?" Rally beamed,"Let's duel!"
I blinked for a moment shifting between this deck in my hand and the eager eyes of the people that surrounded me. I couldn't put my finger on it...but I felt a strong force pull me toward these cards. Like they belonged with me.
Dueling...seemed to be important to me.
"All right." I said calmly and met each set of their eyes,"Let's give it a shot."
The duels were nothing flashy or exciting. We huddled on the dusty floor with a couple of dirty and taped together paper mats.
"Sorry we can't use our Duel Disks right now..." said Nervin, "Rally stirred up some trouble recently so we have to keep a low profile until things cool down.
"Eh heh...yeah. Sorry." the boy chuckled awkwardly,"I was gathering parts to help a friend with his duel runner...he should be back soon and you can meet him!" Rally grinned.
Duel Runner...!
The term shot through me like a bolt of lightning and I could hear the sound of an engine whir in my memories...as well as feel the wind in my hair.
Did I used to ride...?
As I tried to make sense of this newly discovered memory, I flipped over a trap card on my mat.
"Mirror force!? That wipes me out!" Nervin huffed in defeat.
"Jeez she took us all out." Blitz sighed.
"Yeah this girl clearly knows a thing or two about the game." said Tank.
"Yeah...now if only she knew a thing or two about herself..." Rally sighed,"So did dueling any of us, bring back anything for you?"
I blinked as they all gazed upon me desperately hoping for an answer. One I didn't know how to give them. I sighed and held my head down, feeling utterly defeated inside.
"Well...the term Duel Runner did ring a small cord..." I said softly when suddenly I felt another jolt within my mind, like a lightning strike that flashed a memory in place.
"Akarii! Get on your runner and get a move on!"
"Akarii!" I said suddenly in a startled action.
"Huh!?" The entire crew blinked and glanced at each other.
"My name..." I said softly, trying to catch my breath back in lace of the reality before me," It's Akarii."
"Akarii..." Rally blinked and thought for a moment,"Wait...hold on!" he said as he leapt to his feet. He ran to the back of the make shift lounging area that consisted of a dirty couch, a cluttered desk and old photos pinned to the back wall that eventually got covered with dust and random junk. He plucked one from the wall and ran back, placing it in my hands.
"This girl in the photo here..." Rally said as he pointed to the faded image,"This is you, isn't it!?"
My eyes widened as I gazed upon the image. It seemed to be kind of old, and faded now, but there was no doubt, The girl with the red bob...
"This...is me." I said softly.
"I knew it!" Rally beamed,"I Knew I recognized you!" he laughed feeling accomplished,"Your name is Akarii Rhodes!" he grinned,"And the reason why I recognized you, was because you were in a bunch of Yusei's old pictures!"
"Hold on, Akarii Rhodes?" Nervin blinked,"You mean Akarii Rhodes, 'the girl who disappeared about 3 years ago' Akarii Rhodes!?"
"Crow's Akarii!?" Blitz blinked.
"Hey! She wasn't 'Crow's'!" Rally said defensively.
"What Blitz means is, Akarii was the name of the girl that used to live with him I think." said Tank.
"Yeah, she lived with him, but she wasn't his!" said Rally in a huff,"Yusei said she was like their foster sister or something..."
"Yeah...but didn't she disappear like 3 years ago?" Nervin blinked,"I remember Crow getting sick because he spent his time looking for her all night long, every night in that time frame" he blinked," Even in the rain, ever since it happened..." he sighed,"Apparently the whole situation really messed him up."
"Well then this is good news!" Rally said,"Akarii's right here! So we can tell Crow that she's fine and-"
"No, please!" I panicked and grasped at the boy's ragged clothes, which seemed to take him by surprise,"I'm sorry...but please don't tell Crow anything yet..." I said softly.
"But...why not?" Rally asked,"Crow was really worried about you from what I hear." he said softly,"Even Yusei said so...did...you and Crow have a fight maybe?"
"I-I'm not sure." I said nervously,"That's why I don't want you to say anything." I sighed and released his sleeve,"It's just the way you are talking is like...this Crow person and I...were really close once but..." I could hear my voice quiver as I tried to fight back the sting of the tears in my eyes,"But I don't remember any part of that life so I..."
"I see..." Rally sighed,"So you don't want to see Crow because You don't remember anything about him..."
"Yeah...I suppose I'd be hurt too if there was someone I was super close to and all of a sudden they didn't remember me anymore..." Tank sighed sadly as he tried to put himself in that place.
"Maybe so..." said Nervin,"But there's also the thing to consider, she's an amnesiac." he said,"Wouldn't being with Crow, possibly help bring back memories?"
"Yeah that's a possibility too..." Rally sighed and quickly ruffled up his hair,"Aww Man this is tough I'm not sure what to do!" he sighed. Not far in the distance the echo of an engine sounded and it perked up Rally's ears."
"Hey! Yusei's back!" Rally smiled and led the girl to the couch and sat her down gently,"Yusei was her old friend too, so maybe he can also help!"
"Not a bad thought, Rally." Nervin grinned and the ginger soon turned his attention back to the girl, placing the photo into her hands,"Just hang tight Akarii." Rally smiled warmly,"Yusei will know what to do."
To Be Continued