viii. eight; reverse
All he's been doing today is spend the past hour watching Edo's pro-duels on TV.
Originally, he wanted to browse through the channels to find the pro-duels recorded from Manjoume's tournament when he was still here in America, but Judai stupidly did not think to write down the channel that Manjoume told him it would be aired on, nor did he also remember the time it would air. He considered sending Manjoume a text about it, but figures he'd get yelled at for disturbing his beauty sleep in some fancy German hotel or wherever Manjoume usually goes to in Germany. He admittedly forgot all about it for a while because of what happened yesterday.
Judai gave up halfway through his channel search and just settled with watching Edo's duels instead. This pro-duel seems to come along with an interview from Edo at the end, along with some backstage footage, which is more or less just people screaming about Edo as the camera follows him. Seeing those cameras makes him think about Oja Manjoume, fueling the skyrocketing urge to watch Manjoume's two-hour special if it means that Judai can see any cameo of Oja Manjoume in there somewhere. Even as a pro-duelist, Manjoume still makes time for kids and it's pretty funny to Judai in a lighthearted, warm way to watch as he entertains them. He doesn't wear the old Ojama Yellow costume anymore, but Manjoume sometimes wears an Oja Manjoume brand shirt just for the children whenever he has autograph signing sessions.
But of course, Judai will never know if Oja Manjoume will ever appear again because he stupidly forgot the channel and time the show was supposed to be aired. First he couldn't fish in peace, and now he can't even find the right channel to watch his friend's pro-duels on. Ugh! What does he need to do to enjoy things anymore? (Stop being stupid? suggests Yubel, which Judai pretends to not acknowledge.)
Seated on the living room couch, he hears footsteps behind him as he shuffles his deck to pass time during a commercial on TV. Knowing who it is, Judai asks, without looking up, "Are you going somewhere?"
Asuka distractedly answers, "The bookstore; I'm picking up a book I ordered."
He perks a bit. The bookstore? Actually… This is great timing. The commercials were getting boring anyway.
Casually, he asks, "Can I come too?"
There is a mildly long pause, which makes him wonder if she already left, but she finally says, "Could you repeat that…?"
Gosh, she sounds so horrendously mortified, like he just told her that her apartment is going to get demolished instead of simply asking if he could come along to the bookstore. Is there something wrong with him wanting to go through some books? He did tell her that he would, after all. She's the one who even started the whole thing of wanting him to go through books! She should've been expecting it at some point!
Rolling his eyes at her drama, Judai puts his deck on his lap while he puts the TV remote on the empty space next to him. "I asked if I could come along with you to the bookstore," he repeats, patiently.
Asuka latches onto some wild belief that he's gone crazy, apparently. "Are you feeling okay? Do you have a fever? Did you slip and fall again?"
He supposes it's both a blessing and a curse that the tension they had for the past few days vanished not even twenty hours ago. If he hadn't realized that he likes her back yesterday, he could've just rolled his eyes again and been annoyed with the conversation and left it at that while sulking. But since he did realize that he likes her back, it's just downright embarrassing to know what she's perceiving of his character right now. The sad thing is that she really does sound one-hundred percent concerned, which does not help him and his self-esteem in the slightest.
Unable to look at her, he covers his eyes with a palm and leans his head against the back of the couch in dramatic resignation. They can talk to each other again and that's all fine and dandy, but he just had to go and like the one and only person he had to reject during her birthday. This is sad. It's like he can't socialize anymore. Maybe he should've just told her that he was going to take a nap or something whenever she leaves to go get her book. It would've saved him some face.
Since he's so stupid, he decides to whine his woes away: "Now you're acting like Manjoume!" He takes a self-soothing breath. "I'm fine, Asuka!" he insists, hoping his desperate tone is enough to convince her.
Judai concludes that he really needs to work on his desperate tones more, because she replies, "But Judai! You said you don't go into bookstores!"
He musters all of his patience to remain calm. "Yeah, I did. But I figured I'd ask anyway."
"There's nothing wrong with that, but why the sudden change of heart?" Asuka zips up her purse.
"I told you I would go through some books if it'll make you happy, remember?" Prior to his revelation about his feelings, he would've felt more confident to answer her. Awkwardly, he gazes up to the ceiling through the gaps of his fingers sprawled over his eyes. "I'm leaving in a few days, after all!" The very fact itself that she's making a trip to the bookstore today is just timed too well with their conversation of him going through books for her. When will the opportunity come up again?
Sitting upright properly, he quietly puts back his deck in its box in this thoughtful silence. If this is how it's like when he asks to go to the bookstore, then he wonders what it would be like if he asks to go to, for example, a library with her. Maybe she'd faint.
If you just wanted to look through books, she has plenty here, Yubel points out.
Honestly forgetting about that, he pretends he did not hear the comment.
There are plenty on the shelves over there.
He adamantly stares at the TV screen, not really focused on the ending credits.
She probably read most of them, so it's not like you'll be clueless about which book is about what.
He responds in a matter-of-factly voice, Which is why it's killing two birds with one stone if I go with her. She gets to find new books while I can see what they have to offer.
Yubel says nothing back, probably rolling their eyes, and he smiles with victory because he rarely gets to win against them in a battle of witty remarks. It feels good.
"Okay, you can come along…" concedes Asuka hesitantly, after some thought. He blinks. "But you're not allowed to complain if it's boring. I warned you."
Satisfied, he happily turns off the TV and salutes her. "Aye, aye!"
.
.
It's a nice and quiet walk, he thinks. Pleasantly, Judai is content enough to walk by her side while looking around.
He hardly ever takes this route whenever he's here, so it's pretty cool to see during his down time what else Asuka's neighborhood has to offer. He's explored a good chunk of Johan's neighborhood with him already since Johan was enthusiastic enough to give him a town tour, but Judai hasn't fully memorized Asuka's neighborhood. He memorized the routes to her apartment and the harbor and the park, but not all the routes. Come to think of it, she never gave him a tour. He's taken walks around here before, but never really paid attention. He gets the impression that she lives in a small neighborhood when he and Asuka reach the bookstore not even twenty minutes after they left her apartment.
Quietly following her lead, he observes the way her eyes light up the moment she steps across the threshold of the sliding doors, looking like she's reached nirvana or something equally enlightening. Amusement lingers in his smile as he watches her contemplatively stare at the shelves. This place is probably her heaven, because she still looks like she's achieved nirvana.
Since they're both here on two different missions today, Judai tries to be the responsible one this time and clears his throat with a lackadaisical smile. Being mature and a killjoy is definitely not his thing, but the person who is usually the mature killjoy out of the two of them is occupied right now.
The aforementioned mature killjoy does snap out of her daydreaming, but she turns red and refuses to look at him. He stifles a laugh.
For all of her calm demeanor and seriousness, Asuka can sometimes show signs of shyness and embarrassment too. He hardly ever sees that side of her, so it's endearing when he does. Is this what Fubuki means whenever he lectures her about being more feminine? (She always gets mad about it, so he's learned to not talk about it. Besides, she's always mad at her brother about lots of things, so Judai never knows if something is okay to be brought up or not.)
With a mumble, Asuka tries to reclaim her title as the responsible one by getting back on track: "I-I will be at the counter to pick up my book."
Nonchalantly, he saunters behind her. "I'll come too. It's not like I have another reason to be here anyway." Which is the truth.
She tenses a little, probably surprised by his cooperation. "Do what you want…"
Since she gave him the clear consent, Judai does what he wants and continues to follow her. Even though he volunteered to come along, this is still unknown territory to him and he is honestly only here because of her anyway. He sticks with her through the whole minute journey to the front counter for her to ask about her book order. He feels a little silly for just standing there, but at least she looks happy to get her book once her talk with the clerk is over.
Ready to ponder about which books he could go through for her, he stops walking when he notices that Asuka is rather enthralled by the book shelves nearby. "I want to look around a bit…" she murmurs, trailing.
The second he looks at her, Judai almost lets out a laugh. Almost.
This is the first time she looks so genuinely eager about something that isn't Duel Monsters-related, and he thinks this is good for her. Since it makes her happy, he doesn't mind staying a bit longer just for her indulgence. Asuka should be able to enjoy things that she likes, after all. "Go ahead," he consents, amused.
When she excitedly strides to an aisle, he continues to follow her leisurely with a smile.
.
.
Flipping through a fairly-thick book, Asuka asks him tentatively, "Are you sure you're not bored?"
Goodnaturedly, he gives a whimsical shrug and says, "Your reactions are entertaining enough to me."
It's hard to believe that they've been here for this long, but they're still here. Judai hadn't found a book that interested him enough to pick it up yet, but some of them had nice covers to glance at as he followed Asuka around the aisles. To be honest, he found it a teensy bit boring—but he said he'd look through books for her, and he plans to stick to it even if it's taking him a while to do that. Nobody said change is easy to adjust to, after all. He should've been sour about the whole book thing, but maybe there are some merits to it if it means that things can stay peaceful like this once in a while.
He and Asuka journeyed through aisles A through E, and are currently in aisle F. It's a miracle he even lasted until aisle F, but he got by just fine after seeing how Asuka looked ready to shame the bookstore staff or something when she found out that there were no new dueling books in stock for aisle D and the other aisles. He gets a kick out of that every time.
He wasn't kidding when he said that her reactions were entertaining to him. It reminds him of that time when he asked her if she was interested in the Golden Egg Bread and she kept denying it, despite her two hands holding two burgers in plain sight right in front of him and Sho. She tries to pretend her reactions never happened, probably because they're embarrassing for her public image or something, but he knows they happened and it's good that she can feel so keen about things, whether it be about legendary breads or books. Judai's seen the chaos that could happen when she's doing things for her job and school, so it's good that she can unwind with something. He's merely commenting on it as he sees it, and he sees it as funny.
But it probably gave out the wrong message, because Asuka starts sulking. "I'm not a zoo animal," she mutters, putting back a book and walking down the aisle. He stares after her, bemused.
Wha— Zoo animal? She's thinking about zoo animals?
Yubel helpfully says, Probably because all you've done is watch her like she is one.
Upon hearing this, a strong laugh bubbles up in him as he starts trailing after her. His jaw is starting to hurt from fighting it back, stuck as a large grin. She thinks she's a zoo animal due to him following her around because he's been trying to figure out what type of book to go through for her. It's just comical at this point!
He absently follows her until she finally stops in front of another collection of books that caught her eyes. "Maybe you might like one of these," suggests Asuka, picking up a book that causes him to raise an eyebrow because is that a cover with a fish on it?
Out of curiosity, he leans over her shoulder and studies a passage trying to explain how fish prefer rainy seasons than hotter seasons and that rain causes water to cool down for fish to come out. There's some science in it, but he can generally understand what it's trying to say. But even so, he already knows this himself since he's also fished in rainy weather before. He will, however, admit that he didn't know about this tidbit detailing how bass and carps prefer active and moving bait. (That explains why he hardly caught any of them back with Johan last year.)
"I never knew some of this stuff," admits Judai. "But I'd rather stick with what I already know. Easier to remember, in my opinion. I've done good on my own so far."
He believes in experiencing the real thing rather than reading about it to truly understand something, but for someone like Asuka, he supposes reading about fishing is the way for her to learn about it. She's not the completely brainy type like Misawa, but Asuka is someone who would rather have a general idea of something first than to jump right into it. He is the latter kind himself since there's no point for him to read about it if he can just do it himself with his amount of leeway in life.
Chin hovering her shoulder, he absently looks at the diagrams of fishing rods on the adjacent page. Boy, it would've been so handy if he had this diagram when he and her went on their first fishing trip together. All he really did was tell her to hold onto the reel before she started daydreaming.
Well… While they're here in this current aisle, he might as well find a book for himself since he actually likes fishing well enough to read about it.
Leaning away, he eyes the shelf thoughtfully and goes to grab a fishing book with a lake picture on the cover, trying to see if there is any section in it that talks about using an appropriate lure for catching small lake fish. He does not understand some of these paragraphs simply because the wording seems so old-fashioned, but he wills himself to remain strong and continue flipping section by section. Geez, maybe the author was too prehistoric to know what a table of contents is?
Judai keeps flipping and flipping… and flipping… and flipping—
Suddenly, he stops. Staring at the page spread for a few seconds, he smiles approvingly at the idea he just got and doesn't listen to Yubel's comment about how it's a dumb idea. He's allowed to have some fun, dumb or not! Opportunities are like fish: you see one, so you snag it or else it will swim away. That's exactly what he's doing right now!
Leaning to his side, he shows Asuka the two-page spread, snickering, "Look, I found a whole section dedicated to trouts."
It works like magic.
When she snatches the book out of his hands with a flat expression, shoving it right back into the shelf to the point where it rattles all the other books, Judai tries really hard to fight this new stream of laughter coursing through him. He's really, really trying, but alas, his efforts end in vain. And to think, Yubel said this was a dumb idea. Psh!
Attempting to hide his face behind a fist, he struggles with controlling himself, stomach burning and his face hurting. He still doesn't know how she ever thought of herself as boring, but he knows that she's definitely wrong about it. As he continues his vain attempt to handle his amusement, Asuka deadpans, "I think I'm done with this aisle now."
She even marches away from him! This deals the final blow to him, so he finally lets his laughter seep out.
See? Her reactions are always funny!
He has enough common sense to keep his laughter low to not bother others, but he keeps chuckling as he tries to find another book to flip through while she ventures to a different aisle. This time, he doesn't follow her. Not because he doesn't want to, but because he knows she would rather have him read a book he's actually interested in rather than halfheartedly look through a random one.
Grabbing another promising book, Judai opens it as he smiles, flipping through the pages.
This whole bookstore trip wasn't that bad, to be honest. It helped him warm up to books while also letting him see what Asuka's life is like when she isn't working. He's broadening his horizons by being here! Didn't he tell her that when he got her to go fishing with him anyway? To broaden her horizons? Oh, how the tides have turned.
With one last laugh, he starts reading.
.
.
There are times when he feels like he and Asuka switched roles or something. This is one of those times.
Following her as they near the entrance of the bookstore, Judai gives a laugh for the umpteenth time. It's rather amazing how much he's laughed today because of her. "I said I was sorry!" Ignoring him, she keeps walking. "Asuka!" Ignore. Yup, they've definitely switched roles today. Cheeky, he pipes, "If I knew you were that triggered by trouts, I wouldn't have shown you!"
She immediately retorts, "You still showed it anyway!"
He shakes his head amusedly as he catches up to her, exiting the bookstore together.
At some point during his research about catching small lake fish with properly-sized lures, he became immersed in the reading. When he had flipped to the next page, he was so focused that he never realized there was a photo of a trout on the adjacent page. Then, before he knew it, Asuka somehow magically popped up next to him, which made him jump because he never noticed her approaching, which led him to reveal the page with the trout photo, starting some funny chain effect of making Asuka jump too. Judai spent a while laughing again as he placed the book back for her this time since it wouldn't be good if she somehow broke the shelves as she brooded. Yubel sometimes tells him if he's being approached by others, but not today apparently. (I can't interfere when you're actually learning for once, they said seriously, to which he shook his head at.)
It should've been him who is currently sulking while she shakes her head at him because she gave him the scare first, which led him to scare her—but no, it's most definitely her who's doing the sulking while he shakes his head at her this time. She even accused him of planning the whole thing, which he swore with absolute honesty that it wasn't true this time, but she kept eyeing him like he did! Gosh.
Although, to be honest, he's been fully aware that she hates trouts since the beginning.
At first, after catching the king trout together, Judai just thought she was annoyed since it splashed her, which he understands because he'd feel the same if it were him splashed—but it eventually started to become funny how she would bring up trouts either to lighten the atmosphere or talk about how evil they are, like she doesn't want him to live it down that he made her get splashed. Goodness, he still doesn't see why it's such a bad thing since she washed her clothes anyway. Nevertheless, a good portion of his amusement lately has been spawned by trouts, and he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't fond of her king trout since it had been the one thing that helped them talk again when everything was still awkward. He hopes that king trout knows how grateful he feels towards it.
And besides, the trout sorta became their thing anyway. Just a little something between him and her that no one else knows. They don't have much inside jokes, so it's nice. He laughs, whimsical. "Because I thought trouts were, like, our inside joke or something. You just had some bad timing earlier. I didn't even know you were there! That's what you get for peeking over my shoulder!"
Asuka continues her flawless rendition of sulking. "You'd be more believable if you weren't laughing."
So dramatic. "Aww, c'mon," he coaxes with a friendly smile. "Since you got your book, why don't we walk around so you can forget about the trout, 'kay?" The weather's great and they're both outside already; it'd be a waste if they went back now, especially since the sun is still out.
Probably still sour about the trout-book incident, she gives him a wary gaze. "Okay, but I'm turning around and going back if you make one more fish or trout joke."
"I'm no scout, but I give you my scout's honor anyway," he says jokingly with his Gotcha! pose. "Since you got to go somewhere you like, can I pick this time?"
Considering it, Asuka nods. "Do you have a place in mind?"
Surprisingly, he does.
Obviously, changes hit him as he grew up, whether he wanted them to or not. Since Asuka showed him a bit of her life today with the bookstore, he figures he could return the favor by showing her a little bit of his. It's the least he can do in return since she helped him with his issues concerning the Dark World and such. It's been a long time since he had a talk like that with someone, and it's also the first time he and Asuka get to walk around like this just to spend leisure time together. He used to not mind hanging around populated places too much, but Judai's preferences for hang-out places had gradually tweaked towards this new type of peace he adapted to.
Beaming brightly at her, he gestures to a direction that he can remember with ease. "It's a place you'll like too, I promise!"
(Promise. When did it become so easy to promise things again?)
He gently grabs her wrist with intentions to tug her along because he's done it many times before, but he didn't know that the touch this time would be different.
It's a strange change, but he welcomes it this time.
.
.
The moment they approached the front door, Judai got the feeling that she knew he'd take her here based on her smile. Not that he minds, because card shops make him happy. (It also reminds him of Tome-san and the card shop back at Duel Academia, bringing back some fond memories for him. He hopes Tome-san is doing great right now, like how he's always remembered her to be. It's like nothing could ruin her day whenever he saw her, not even that broken truck he helped her push up a hill when they first met.)
Scrutinizing a few card packs stacked at a nearby rack, he tries to determine which pack would have what in it. Sometimes, when they go check out card shops, he and Johan play guessing games about what could be in each blind pack, and the loser buys dessert for the winner. Judai's luck comes in handy for those instances and Johan makes good earnings from his tournaments, so it's usually win-win for both of them. Johan may not be here right now to play this game, but the guessing is still fun to do for Judai to liven things up a bit.
Taking two packs, he takes a blind guess for himself that these two packs will contain hero cards. Maybe he might find something new to add to his deck. (Nevermind the fact that he couldn't find anything for his deck the last time he and Johan went card shopping.) Satisfied enough, he nods to himself before glancing around to find Asuka intensely inspecting the glass counters.
Piqued, he quietly approaches her and eyes the card she's self-debating over.
She begins, "Cy—"
"—ber Tutubon?" he ends in unison, a bit fascinated over the card himself as he leans to read the card's name. Since he doesn't work with this deck, Judai's actually never really seen the whole Cyber set before. At least, not the Cyber Girls series that Asuka owns. It's a different structure and play style than Kaiser's Cyber Dragons, but Judai's seen her play style before and there seems to be nothing more befitting for her than this Cyber Tutubon card. "You should get it; it looks like it would really suit your deck. Reminds me of Cyber Tutu, right down to the name."
"I was thinking the same thing, actually. I couldn't really find anything else that interested me." Asuka nods to herself, looking pleased. "I think I will get this one after all."
Lifting up his card packs, he smiles and says, "Cool, I'll check out with you."
Five minutes later outside, he's glad that Johan isn't here with them because even though Judai's guess about these card packs having hero cards was correct, these cards aren't new and Johan would laugh at him if he saw. For instance, Judai doesn't exactly need another Skyscraper when he already has one copy along with Hayato's Skyscraper 2, nor does he need another Miracle Fusion when he has too many copies of it saved up from previous draws. There are some other spells and traps in the other pack, but it's more beneficial to have the hero-related spells and traps in his deck rather than basic ones.
Deciding that it was rather anticlimactic, he watches Asuka smile as she puts Cyber Tutubon away in her purse. "Must be nice that one of us got something new."
She probably expected him to be lucky because she asks curiously, "Did you not get anything from those packs?"
"Just ones that I already have or the ones that aren't compatible with my deck." Sulking, Judai slips the cards back into the packaging. There are no useless cards, as he had expressed during his time with Honest (he also remembers Manjoume stressing the same thing), but it's also important to know if said cards are compatible with your deck or not. They aren't compatible with his deck, but he's against throwing the cards away since that would peg him down to the same level as the people who threw out their cards in the stone well from the forest he accompanied Manjoume to years ago. No card deserves that treatment. "Too bad Johan's not here so I can give him these. Or anyone, honestly."
Looking like she's brainstorming, Asuka gestures a hand towards him, beckoning. "I could take them."
Arching an eyebrow, he asks, "I thought you were satisfied with your deck?"
"I could take them so I can bring them to my class when school starts." She smiles absently, and it shows how much she cares for her school. "Maybe a student of mine might want them. If not, I know other teachers I could pass them along to."
"This reminds me…" Relinquishing the packs to her, what she says gets him thinking. "How was school this year?"
"Why?" She starts walking after zipping her purse, and he follows quietly.
Why, she had asked. Well, he thinks to himself, why not?
Why not?
It's no secret that he doesn't like school, but why not? He wouldn't mind it too much if she talked about it. He hardly ever asks her about school anyway, so it would make good conversation. It's like an icebreaker. He doesn't need more of a reason than that, right?
He brings these thoughts to life by telling her, "I hardly ask you about it. I've always talked about my travels, but you never get to talk about your life at school."
Perhaps he stumped her, because she looks awkward. "Well… I thought it'd be boring." He blinks, looking at her. "You experience new things every time whenever you're out there, but I'm always following the same routine everyday until the school year is over. I'm not saying that's boring for me; I love all the kids in my classes. But from an outsider's perspective, I feel like it's a little boring."
She seems to have overlooked that their own school life back at Duel Academia was anything but boring. Well, the lectures were boring to him, but still. They're some of the things that made the school life memorable. He probably took the boringness of the lectures for granted during his first year because he never had another moment of that mundane peace anymore after second year. (It could've been better without Chronos-sensei's nagging, but Judai wouldn't be remembered as Drop-Out Boy if that stopped. The name used to annoy the heck out of him, but it also sorta grew on him in a semi-fond way upon graduation.)
The more he looks back on it, the more he can see Asuka's point. But in his opinion, routines aren't that boring. Everyday's an adventure because you don't know what will happen next, right? That's a good thing. Besides, routine seems to be good for her since she's so organized.
"If I thought it was boring, then I wouldn't have asked," he says, simply.
She's quiet for a moment or two. In the midst of this silence, he reminds himself, Why not? "My classes here are nothing like ours back when we were still in school." Lightheartedly, Asuka inserts, "No one sleeps during my classes, or skips."
Judai fakes an offended cough, ego poked. Yes, these were (are) his habits, but it's still embarrassing when it's been pointed out like that! "Don't push your luck."
Pleasantly, she smiles with a tease evident. Reminding himself that he willingly brought up this whole conversation to know more about her daily life, he repeats his mantra again to cope with her teasing, Why not, why not, why not—
"Everyone seems to look content during my class, so I guess I'm doing a good job with how I teach. I do catch an occasional yawn sometimes, if it makes you feel better." Better? Psh. His eyes roll, unable to distinguish if this is a nice way of insulting him or if she made it up just so he wouldn't feel like he was a hopeless student. "I teach about Fusion Summoning. We have sessions where we practice Fusion Summoning different fusion monsters for practice duels. Sometimes I help give out lectures about Ritual Summoning since we don't have enough teachers for that. I prefer to teach Ritual Summoning more since that's what my deck is about, but it doesn't seem to be that popular of a subject. So, I mainly teach about Fusion Summoning. That's your favorite, isn't it?"
Perking, he nods, hands in pockets. "Guilty as charged." Whilst she's smiling, he reviews what she had said. "I didn't know you taught that," comments Judai, thoughtful. While he knew that she's a teacher at a school for dueling, she never really mentioned what topics she taught. He sort of assumed she did a bit of both lectures and demonstration duels in general since he isn't sure if dueling schools in America were structured the same as Duel Academia or other ones in Japan. After all, he's never even seen a dueling school up close in America before. "It makes me wanna see what your class is like in person."
What he said seemed to have given her some ideas: "You have a lot of Fusion monsters in your deck, so I could invite you if you ever feel like visiting. Why just see the class when you could participate? Sometimes, they ask me to help test out new trial decks. We could even have a duel while we're at it!"
Visiting her class? Sure it was a thought he randomly had, but Yubel probably wouldn't—
Do what you want, Yubel says dismissively.
Dumbly, Judai takes a moment to process this. That's it?
A pause. Then: Frankly speaking, I'd take a classroom of teenagers rather than the fool.
Wondering how Yubel could find Johan worse than twenty-or-so students in one classroom, Judai tells Asuka with a nod, "As long as you ask me first, I'll see if I can make time for it." It would be his first time seeing her do her work. Not work like her grading and researching, but her actual work. A part of him wonders if she lectures like Chronos-sensei, huffy and naggy, or like Daitokuji-sensei, who was much calmer and laid-back. It makes him grin. "Finally, I can see No-Nonsense Asuka-sensei in her natural habitat. Chronos-sensei should take notes."
"Don't push your luck." She sighs. He laughs.
He may not like school, but she's happy when she talks about it. It makes her happy. He thinks it's nice that he could be the one to give her these little moments of happiness. It's nice that it was him who could do that for her. Him.
Judai smiles to himself.
Someday, he'll visit her at her school. Someday, he'll meet her class. Someday, they can have that duel she talked about. He would like for her to have some happy memories to hold onto.
Because today, it's a happy memory for him.
.
.
He can't say for sure he knows this area that much better than she does, but this plaza seems more crowded now that it's nearing five o'clock. It had been two o'clock when he had still been surfing through channels on her TV earlier and when they went to the bookstore. Strange how fast time flew by.
When he takes a bite of a crepe he bought in line with her, Asuka asks, "Where are you going when you leave this time?"
Carefully, he thinks it over as he chews and swallows. "I was thinking south this time. I've never really gone there before. Maybe I could help someone there."
Johan lives in the north, so that's where Judai usually went. Manjoume, Edo, and Sho are everywhere and anywhere, and it never really occurred to him to go towards any particular direction with a purpose. Unless O'Brien reports to him about potential danger in a specific location, Judai just wanders with no definite destination in mind. It's more like a bonus if he ever visits anyone or bumps into them, in which Johan and Jim end up being lucky winners to be graced by him all the time to receive their generous hospitality.
He snickers, "Not to mention, I think Jim and Johan are pretty tired of me crashing with them!" The expression on Asuka's face looks like she feels really sorry for Johan and Jim. In his defense, Judai shares some of the housework with them to compensate! "I want to see if I can bump into Sho or Manjoume while I'm at it. Or Edo, wherever he is. Or even Kaiser! Haven't really seen them in a while, except on the news."
"If you do, you can send my regards to them," she says, and it makes him wonder if she had spoken to any of them in a while. Whenever he visits Sho, Judai knows that Kaiser sometimes brought up Asuka just to ask how she's doing. Manjoume obviously talks about her from time to time, but whether or not Asuka's actually talked with them herself hadn't been something he thought much about.
So, he nods at her and tries to remember it for next time, going back to eating his crepe. Given their closeness, Kaiser would appreciate knowing she's okay. He's not sure about Manjoume, though.
There's a nice silence between them among this semi-noisy street until Asuka asks, "Are you tired? We can rest there."
Rest? Pausing in his indulgence of his crepe, Judai looks up and lets his gaze wander the area idly, unable to answer her quite yet.
They've been outside together for a majority of the day, which he would not even bat an eyelash at had it been four days prior because being outside for a long time is common to him—but now that he realized that he actually feels something back for her, he's not really sure how to approach this. When she suggested that they should rest out here in the plaza, in public, it strangely made him hyper-aware of their surroundings and the people around them.
There's a lot of people holding hands here. You hold hands with the people that you like, right…?
...At times like these, Johan would probably encourage him to do what makes him happy.
...
"It'd be nice to sit down for a while," Judai decides, finally. "Let's go."
She says nothing in return when he grabs her hand and tentatively starts walking to the bench, and it makes him feel awkward because this is the first time he's ever attempted this while being aware of it. He's snatched her wrist before if he wants to drag her somewhere and she's being stubborn, or if he wants to comfort her. This time, he's holding her hand to take her to a bench. Simple. Simple.
And it feels different.
Different… and embarrassing.
You're the embarrassing one, mutters Yubel.
He grimaces and says nothing back, because he sees their point and it sucks. This would've been fifty times easier had Asuka not confessed to him and pretty much broke his mind for a few days.
She hasn't snatched her hand back from him, so he'll take what he can get since they somehow got to this point already. He's an idiot, after all. He failed to appreciate those little moments back then, so he'll do that now. People say that you should pursue what makes you happy, so if this makes him happy, then is he allowed to be a little bit selfish from time to time?
Despite the embarrassment, he answers this by not letting go of her as they sit on the bench.
Judai tells himself that he already broke her heart once, so he shouldn't be doing this. But she had also asked him, yesterday, why he stayed.
Because I didn't want to run away.
It was a solid explanation he had prepared, because it was true. But maybe that might have been a half-truth since he's shown, time and time again, that he comes back. Had it been driven by guilt alone, he could've left her as early as yesterday afternoon after their talk about the Dark World because that was probably his sign that he's reaching some closure.
He could always run away, and he could always come back. He chose not to run away, but he chose to come back.
He still chose to stay.
Distractedly, he quietly muses to himself as he nips at his crepe. It's when an abrupt action jerks from his hand's grip that he snaps out of his ruminations, looking up to see Asuka ushering herself to one of the tower binoculars nearby.
Blinking slowly, Judai wonders when she had done that, feeling like time drastically slowed for him in the midst of his thinking. Staring at her back, he leans himself against the bench and crosses his arms as he finishes the last of the crepe. He watches as she looks into the lens and aims the binoculars at the faraway buildings, then the sky. He watches her tense up as she counts the clouds, and knows that she isn't standing there just to look at pretty scenery. Inwardly, he deflates a bit, feeling partially responsible.
She didn't even leave the bags behind, he notes absently, eyeing the bag hanging from her elbow and her purse over her shoulder. Or toss out the crepe wrapping.
I wonder why, Yubel offhandedly says, showing up.
Judai quietly gives their translucent form a look, crumpling his crepe wrapping into a ball. Sometimes, he wonders how it feels to freely read the thoughts of other people. Don't you have the ability to know that?
Casually, they offer a one-shoulder shrug. Yes.
Then why'd ya say anything? he dryly asks, looking unamused.
I only vocalized your next thought, they smartly retort.
Judai rolls his eyes, hoping that Yugi-san and his other half don't have it as hard as him with spiritual partners—at least, not ones with smart mouths and sassy remarks. Not really in the mood for bantering, he looks up at the sky briefly.
For a moment, Yubel gives him a thoughtful look. Do you want to know?
Know what?
Why she didn't leave her things behind.
He can't seem to answer this, knowing that it's not so simple.
Yubel answers anyway: Conflict. There is still conflict inside of her. Pausing, they smirk. You really did a number on her, during her day of birth.
Ouch. Yubel's never going to let him live that down. He cringes. But we talked it over…
Closure for one issue doesn't resolve all issues, they wisely advise. Talking about that dimension does not seem to tie in with what's happening between you two in the present.
Yes it does, he argues.
Yubel raises an eyebrow. If you both move on from it, then it doesn't anymore.
Judai lets the statement sink in, then he asks, Did you two become friends?
They let out a rare chuckle, like they're privy to something he doesn't know about. She's just a pest like you, but slightly better, they answer, amused. If he had to compare it to something, it's like when Yubel calls him an idiot.
He wants to point out that Yubel didn't really deny his question, but maybe it's better if he didn't. After all, it's so rare to see them warm up to someone who's not him. Letting the insult slide, he sees Asuka tilt the tower binoculars up to zoom in on something. You've been helping me a lot lately, he says instead.
It's my duty. Undeterred, Yubel adds, My loyalty is to my king. A slight pause. They adorn a rare small smile, looking fond. Forever.
At this, he smiles with sincerity as they vanish back into him. He's glad that it's Yubel who is his cherished partner.
Judai starts sitting up as Asuka finally musters enough bravery to walk back to the bench and take her seat next to him. To help alleviate some of the silence, he asks conversationally, "See anything?"
"The ocean looked beautiful from here," she answers, seemingly fascinated. Hands settled on both sides of her, Asuka sits up and casts a gaze back at the scenery, sounding oddly nostalgic. "Everyone looked small from up here too. But the clouds were the prettiest—I zoomed in on them."
"They are the prettiest during this time of day. I see them all the time when I'm outside."
"You must be used to seeing them since you're always outside then."
"Yeah," he nods. Sometimes, he takes pictures of them on his phone. "But there's always something different when I look up. I don't really get bored looking at them since I can always use my imagination when cloud watching."
She seems to be pondering about something. "All right. What do you see right now when you look up?"
Rising up to the challenge, he does his best to look as serious as he can while he inspects the clouds. "Manjoume on a giraffe," he deadpans, and he isn't sure if she is laughing at his poker face or at the statement, but it motivates him to continue. Judai points at the clouds in question, trying to sound half as intelligent as Misawa. "Because over there, those spikes you see poking out? That's his hair." He lets his finger gesture to other sections as he ticks them off to her: "That part flaring out is probably his coat. And that long part over there? That's the giraffe neck. Manjoume probably wasn't content with his dragons and cannons, so he found another new friend!" He also adds a cheeky, "The Ojama Brothers probably feel betrayed."
Fighting back some laughter, she tries to defend Manjoume's honor, "He won't be too happy if he heard you say that."
While she is focused on stifling her laughter with her hand, he stops gesturing at the clouds and lowers his hands back down. One of them takes her unoccupied hand, and it's not an accident. It's him being selfish today, but it makes him happy. There is a broad grin on his face and he chimes, "It's not like he'll find out anyway." Because he is certainly not mentioning this to Manjoume at all.
It doesn't look like Asuka noticed their hands at all, and this encourages him. "The sun's starting to set," she laughs, smiling and tossing out her crepe wrapping to the trash bin at her other side. "Should we…" Her voice starts sounding careful: "Go home now?"
For the first time after a long while, he ends up smiling at the word. Because 'home' is here. "Sure." To make the most of it, he tosses his balled-up wrapping like a tiny basketball, flying directly into the trash can in one shot. She stares, watching, mildly impressed. "I was pretty good at sports, y'know," he chirps, dusting off his hand on his pants.
In fact, Judai can recall telling that guy in glasses, who liked quizzes, that physical activity is his strong suit. What was his name again? Kanda? He vaguely remembers Kanda making him dunk his head under water for about a minute, in which Judai's glad that dunking your head under water isn't an official sport—
"Like tennis?" Asuka quips, raising an eyebrow.
Immediately, Judai pauses and it feels like he's reeling for a bit. Her cut-in sentence complemented his train of thought a little too well, and that's sorta mortifying because tennis.
Tennis.
Good heavens, not tennis. He's had enough of Tennis Looney as it is. So much that Judai still can't remember his long name.
Melodramatically, he stands up and bemoans, "Don't remind me. That was torture. Who punishes someone by forcing them to join the tennis club and making them play tennis?" In the midst of his ranting, Judai only has half of his attention on the road to find the path leading back to Asuka's apartment while the other half flares in indignation, making him roll his eyes. "Chronos-sensei was totally out for me back then, I swear. I wasn't even the one who hit the ball to his eye, and I said I was sorry so many times!"
"At least you survived it," she tries to say while… stifling her laughter? She's laughing at him?!
Gruffly, he sulks, "Thank goodness. I'd rather play softball with Misawa again than play tennis with that guy." Man, sometimes he forgets that Misawa was such a good sports guy. Tania's a lucky tiger to have someone like him with her. "And for the record, I thought it was fun playing softball with Misawa. He had good sportsmanship! We were always trying to see who would outdo the other. Sho's my witness."
Some of the sports back at Duel Academia weren't co-ed, so she couldn't have seen some of the shenanigans that happened from his end on the guys' side, but boy, it feels good to finally talk to someone about it. Johan didn't come to Duel Academia until their final year nor did Manjoume ever see the aforementioned shenanigans either due to his odd disappearance back in first year, so Judai could only ever talk with Sho and Asuka about those older memories ever since Hayoto left to work under Pegasus. It makes him realize that Asuka's been around him for a long time—been a part of his life for so long already.
Still immersed in the nostalgic conversation, she is smiling fondly. "On the bright side, you haven't bumped into Ayanokouji-san ever since then."
Ayanokouji? That's his name?
Yeah, Judai's sticking with 'Tennis Looney' instead. A much better fit, in his opinion.
"Psh," he grumps, because Asuka has a crazy fanclub and crazy fans. He might not have cared about that fanclub at all, but some of the guys from it were borderline lunatic whenever he bumped into one of them. That, or maybe because Yubel's cynicism is rubbing off on him. "I wouldn't be surprised if I did." A pause. "Actually, I would be. But I will run the other way if he challenges me again to tennis."
She deadpans knowingly, "But not for a duel?"
Feeling called out, he complains, "I thought we were past this, Asuka!" It was one time! Okay… More than one time, but still!
With endless patience, she replies, "You reap what you sow, Judai."
Now she's pulling out weird metaphors or whatever-they-are. He makes a face. "What does that even mean?"
"Figure it out yourself," she casually fends him off, heartlessly like when he's annoying Yubel and they want him to stop talking. (Heartless!)
In a sulk, he says nothing back. She simpers instead, victorious.
A silence envelopes them again, but this time, he really likes this kind of quietness. It's peaceful and warm, the kind he rarely feels anymore. It's nostalgic and familiar, the kind he doesn't get with Johan because it's a kind that he only has with Asuka.
It's an important and precious quietness.
.
.
Halfway through his rant about Tennis Looney, he admittedly forgot he held onto her hand for a bit until their conversation started dying down and his attention snapped back to the present. He toyed with the idea of holding on longer, but ultimately rejects it as he lets go of her hand. This is enough selfishness for him—after all, he did still put her through a lot. He probably will never be able to tell her because of it, but today was a happy memory for him. He didn't know he could feel so happy just by spending leisure time with her.
Judai stands there patiently as Asuka digs through her purse for her keys to the front door the moment they walk up the last flight of stairs.
"Oh, I think I forgot the keys this time…"
Removing his gaze off the wall, he curiously eyes her, noting her distractedness. "So, we're locked out?" he asks, casual. It wouldn't be his first time accidentally being locked out, to be honest.
Apparently, the idea of being locked out horrifies her, making her pale in the face. Quickly kneeling, Asuka lifts up the corner of the welcome mat that looks worn out, and takes a small key hidden underneath. "No! Luckily, I keep a spare set!" Standing back up, relief is on her face as she inserts the key into the knob.
Judai follows her inside and shuts the door, fairly amused. Johan usually shrugs it off with a lazy smile before going off to request for a new key if he accidentally locks them out, but Asuka reacts like the whole world would stop functioning if she lost her keys. Probably because she wouldn't be able to rest from her job without those keys, but it's still funny to him. He removes his shoes. "You should probably put it back if that's the only extra set."
"I'll do it in a bit." She starts hanging up her purse on the rack before taking the other bag to the dining table to take out her new book. "Besides, I think the landlady has more copies just in case. She said she gets a lot of calls about lost keys."
Hearing this, he supposes that a perk of wandering around is not needing to make sure he has house keys on him. Sounds a little troublesome. He feels kinda sorry for the landlady.
Lazily, he sits himself on her couch after hanging up his jacket, stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders. "Maybe you should ask for more spares since we could've ended up on the streets today, Asuka!" He doubts that she would've liked sleeping against trees like him, or just not sleeping at all. Sometimes, he has those no-sleeping days just because he doesn't feel sleepy (or if he's having nightmares).
Expecting a witty remark to roast his joke, he strangely hears nothing.
Judai peeks behind himself to see her lost in thought. Folding his arms on the back of the couch, he leans his chin on them as he contemplates the best—preferably funny—way to snap her attention back. He won't ask what she's thinking about, but ever since they managed to get their normalcy back, he would like for it to continue. The past few days had been utterly stifling to him, and that's putting it very mildly.
Pointing to an absolutely random direction with his hand, he feigns surprise. "Oh, look! Manjoume on a giraffe!"
"Huh?" murmurs Asuka, cluelessly looking around with a blink.
It actually works.
Burying his face into his arms, he bravely battles the onslaught of laughter bubbling up inside of him. The original idea was to scream her brother's name and pretend Fubuki is invading her apartment, but Manjoume and the giraffe kept popping up into his brain because of their cloud conversation earlier. Judai wheezes, "I didn't think that would work, honestly!" He reburies himself into his arms after taking a quick peek at her, snickering at her reaction, because she looks like she's feeling done with everything. Forcing himself to calm down, he wipes his eyes dry and smiles lightly at her. "You okay, though? You seemed like you were thinking about something."
She shakes her head, trying to look reassuring. "Everything's fine." You sure? is at the tip of his tongue— "Speaking of him, I think one of Manjoume-kun's pro-duels will be on tonight. Maybe you can watch it."
What?
What?!
He's been trying all morning to find that information!
Almost gasping, Judai immediately turns around to fetch the remote. "I didn't know that!"
"I saw it in the TV guide earlier." TV guide?! Why did he not think to use that— "It should be in an hour, on the same channel you usually watch."
An hour? Same channel that he usually watches?! Really, how could he have not known this?
Ashamed in himself, he types out the correct channel number with the remote and sighs in relief. There's a commercial playing right now and he still has an hour remaining, but at least he didn't miss the actual show. He'll just camp on the channel until the hour passes. Turning back to the kitchen to thank her, he feels befuddled at seeing no Asuka in sight while hearing a door click down the hallway. Lamely, he blinks at the spot where she had been standing. She… fled from him again?
"What's so funny?" he asks aloud, feeling Yubel's mood shift.
Yubel has the audacity to show up and smirk at him. "You."
He runs a hand through his hair, rolling his eyes with an indignant noise as he resignedly settles back on the couch to sit through more commercials and a random show playing. As he tunes out the show, he thinks it's strange that Asuka even knows what channels he normally watches since he browses a lot of other channels on his own. It's like when she pointed out that Fusion Summoning is his favorite way of playing Duel Monsters and he didn't remember saying anything about it prior. Oddly, he feels embarrassed. He wasn't aware she paid close attention to him. What else does she notice about him?
Watching him trying to watch (not really) the random showcase on TV, Yubel lazily comments, "I think it's because you're just too obvious."
Judai exhales soothingly.
Dear Osiris.