Casey sighed in relief, finally pulling her hood away from her face as she stepped into Interspace. Nobody had noticed her yet. She'd already had a few reporters camp out in front of her house (although they were quickly scared off by her aunt and cousin), and they'd been receiving calls from a smooth-talking lawyer who kept nudging her into accepting monetary compensation-surprisingly from the person she didn't even hold responsible for injuring Cora. After about two weeks of calls, she begrudgingly accepted a small payout to cover the repairs to her Bakumeter, just to get him off her back.

It was exhausting, being the center of attention and having this whole ordeal out for the public to see; she wished it could have been dealt with privately, although considering this involved the number one Brawler and local hero, the fanfare wasn't surprising. She didn't want any of that today though-she merely wanted to get out of the house.

The turnout was decent, considering it wasn't even noon. A lot of the younger kids had off from school today. A few older ones (they probably skipped) sprawled across the benches or leaned against one of the holographic walls, caught up in their own conversations. Her demeanor relaxed even more, as no one even looked up as she made her way towards the directory and battle schedule display. Donald, one of her closest friends, was supposed to be in a royale today, and she didn't want to miss it.

"Excuse me," she interjected, lightly pushing past two younger girls to look at the time slots. Scanning the participant list she found him-and the fact that the royale wouldn't start for another two hours. "Oh well, " she shrugged, mainly to herself. "Better than being late. Guess I have some time to kill." It was a good thing she'd brought her sketchbook with her.

Turning heel, Casey spotted a vacant bench. Walking over, she sat down, setting her bag beside her. Unzipping the front pocket, she took out a well-worn leather sketchbook and a pen, as well as fishing out her mp3 player. She shoved an earbud in with one hand, flipping to a fresh page in the book with the other.

The royale itself was rather uneventful; Donald came close to losing due to the other players pulling BakuNanos out during the last round, but managed to come out on top. Casey shook her head, as he celebrated while the other three kids pouted, one of them literally throwing their Nano into the trash. She never understood the hype behind those things; shiny new toys couldn't outmatch skill, which Don had in spades.

The crowd around him began to disperse. She figured now was a good time to congratulate him on the win. Unfortunately, some fellow spectators had other ideas.

Casey let out a small gasp as she was suddenly yanked backwards by her arm, so hard she ended up with whiplash. "What the fu-" she hissed through gritted teeth, her neck aching from the force.

"Relax, princess. I just wanna talk. Besides, I thought you wanted to keep a low profile," a familiar voice cooed, as she was spun around to face her abductor.

"Anubias," she growled, causing the white-haired boy to smirk. "What do you want?"

"I wanna talk. Did you not hear me the first time?"

"That's bullshit and we both know it."

"I mean it," he insisted. "Also, I figured you might want to reconsider my previous offer?" his smirk widened. "We've got a common goal now, don't you think?"

Casey crossed her arms. "A common goal," she repeated.

He nodded. "You wanna kick Dan's ass. Same as me," he elaborated.

Not this again. Even before this whole ordeal with Dan, Anubias had taken a strange interest in her and Cora. Sellon had tried a similar spiel, but she quickly lost interest after the drake bit her. "You want to grind Dan and the other Brawlers into the dirt until there's nothing left," she corrected him. "Excuse me, but I don't think wanting to beat someone and having a borderline psychotic desire to obliterate them are exactly the same." She yanked her arm out of his grasp. "Can I go now?"

Anubias quickly sidestepped in front of her. "You're making a mistake," he warned, looming over her. "We could use a brawler like you and a bakugan like Corvannas. I think we even have an extra Ventus Nano for her-"

"What part of 'no' is too hard for you to understand?" A new voice cut in.

Both brawlers turned. "Last I checked, Ninja Boy, this didn't involve you," the boy huffed, although he did stand aside.

"It does if you're insisting on harassing other brawlers," Shun retorted, stepping closer and shoving him away. "Go play with your cronies instead."

Anubias' eyes narrowed, giving a small almost snarl, but he made no reply.

"Are you alright?" Shun asked, watching the other boy slink off.

"Yeah. Thanks." Outside she was grateful, but inside she was screaming. There was no way Shun Kazami had just run Anubias off for her. Two Battle Brawlers had just happened to come across her in such a short time? Maybe she was cursed.

As soon as the Darkus brawler was out of sight, Shun turned back to her. "You're Casey," he remarked. It wasn't a question. More like a confirmation.

She frowned. "What's it to you?"

"Just...curious. Nobody's seen you for a while." He changed the subject. "Is Corva okay?"

"It's Cora, and...define 'okay'."

"Is she alive?"

"She should be, unless she's gone belly up since I last saw her. She's not here at the moment. Why do you care anyway?" she prodded. "It's not like what happened was your fault."

"I know," Shun admitted. "I...well, Marucho and I both still feel bad. That kind of thing should have never happened in the first place." He sounded genuine.

This could still be a farce , Casey thought. Maybe they do feel bad, but...why would you not formally address something like this? Why not mention it at all? Don't they know how bad staying silent has made them look?

"You don't believe me."

His statement made her jump. "I-"

"It's fine," Shun assured her. "I figured as much."

She didn't reply, so he continued on. "If it helps, I'd like to plan out...some sort of public address, regarding the whole situation." he sighed. "A lot of people seem to think Marucho and I condone what happened, since we haven't said anything. I don't blame them; we should have spoken out sooner."

"Why didn't you?"

"Marucho… believes there may have been some foul play involved," Shun explained. "He wanted to investigate this theory. We both also wanted to hear out Dan's side of things. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a hold of him before he left." A soft beeping began emanating from his wrist, ending the conversation between them. "Ah, excuse me," he apologized. "I better take this." With a brief, polite wave, he walked away, fiddling with his own BakuMeter, leaving Casey alone to process what she'd just learned.

Foul Play… She wondered, watching the new head Battle Brawler disappear into the crowd. She backtracked to Anubias. He was part of the Royale that day too...given the axe he has to grind, maybe...something set those two off? She shook her head. Seems a bit too convenient of an excuse, but anything's possible…