Chapter Fourteen
"So, what exactly are we looking for?" Keiji asked his friend as they moved through the underground car park Hatsuko had directed them to.
Unlike the school where they found the purple Crosspoint, this place was rather lively, for an old underground car park at least. There were mattresses and cardboard cutouts in every corner and around most of the pillars supporting the structures. After all, this was a secure location, roof above their heads and enough space for everyone.
Not all the inhabitants seemed to be here, yet some where asleep and other were sitting up straight eyeing the two boys.
Yuito and Keiji had enough experience with guys like these to not bother them.
"I'm not sure. Last time I did this, there was this creepy lady who told me what to do," Yuito replied, "but if Hatsukos theory is true, all we have to do is wait."
"I'm not sure if these guys are gonna be happy they're gonna get even more roommates."
"I hope it won't take that long."
"So do I, I still have errands to run," Keiji said, taking a seat near one of the pillars, "come on, you don't need to pay for a seat."
"What kind of errands do you have to run which are so important you don't want to spend the evening with your boy?" Yuito asked as he sat down on the floor next to Keiji, "you're meeting up with your sister?"
"Why do you wanna keep talking about my sister?" Keiji snapped, "you've got a crush on her or something?"
"I think she's a little too old for me. Or I'm a little to young for her," Yuito replied, "but that's not what I mean. She's nice, good-looking, probably has money and most importantly she wants to get involved in your life. She isn't even forcing you to meet your dad, so what do you want more?"
"I want her to go away again," he replied, "I didn't need her anyway. We got along pretty well in our life without her."
"This is not about needing her," Yuito said, "you're gonna regret it one day if you have the chance the reconcile with Jeanie and do not. If its about needing her, I can give you money so you can take her out to share small fries."
"What if she wants me to meet dad?"
"Then you tell her you don't want to. Or you go along with it," Yuito replied, "she cannot force you to do anything. But if you try to shut her out of your life you'll never see where all this leads."
"And what am I gonna tell her?" Keiji said, "that I sleep in my best friends bed, wear my best friends clothes and use his razor for my armpits when he's not home?"
"You shouldn't tell the first thing to anyone ever," Yuito replied, "and I hope the last is just your usual humor."
"As if any of this was funny."
"I wish I could tell you that you're mistaken, but when I left the house this morning you were watching TV in your boxers, eating cereals with your hands."
"Your boxers and your cereals," Keiji sighed.
"And you were still doing it when I got back to take you out for dinner."
"Your boxers, your cereals, your TV and you taking me out for dinner," Keiji continued, "you see a pattern there? Face it Ito, I'm a fucking loser, I doubt my sister wants me around anymore when she figures out."
"You drank two bottles of her wine and then she had to pat your back while you threw up," Yuito said, "I'm pretty sure you already hit rock bottom."
"If you mean to cheer me up, try harder."
"There's no need to cheer you up because there's no need to be upset," Yuito said, "you're an awesome guy. And an awesome friend. I know that, I lived with you long enough when both of us had nothing at all. You saved my life more often than I can count. Your sister ain't got nothing on you."
"I know I'm awesome," he replied, pulling his friend into a hug, "thanks little critter."
"You're not convinced, are you?"
"Not really, but this helped a little," Keiji replied, "I might give her a call."
"Might?" Yuito asked, giving his friend a scolding look.
"Alright, I'll call her when we get home."
"We have time, we might be here for a while."
"Fine, I'll call her right now."
Knowing the stupid app she programmed onto his Duel Disk was only for emergency, Keiji looked for her contact and manually called her, even though he was hoping she wouldn't pick up.
"Hey brother," he heard her voice through the speaker, "how's it hanging?"
"Hi Jeanie," Keiji said a little insecure, "I was wondering if you might want to hang out sometimes. This time without seeing the contents of my stomach first hand."
"Wow," Jeanie replied, "I never reached for a headset this fast. Uh, spoiler alert but you were on speakers, my bodyguards are shamelessly giggling to themselves."
"Oh great," Keiji scolded himself.
"But I'd love to," Jeanie continued, "do you have plans on Monday? I'd have a free slot in my schedule. Or I'll make one. Maybe, go for dinner and then watch a movie?"
"I was gonna pick something less expensive for taking you out at first," Keiji replied, "how about pool billiard? I know a place where you can get a table for two hours as well as nachos for half the price."
"You want to take me out? I can pay for both of us, really no problems with that."
"No, no, it's fine. I need to get my ass off anyway and stop being paid by everyone."
"Your friends paying isn't he?"
"He said he'd lend me a little bit of money," Keiji said, "I'll definitely pay him back."
"Alrighty then," Jeanie replied, "sounds like a date. Platonic one, of course. Monday evening, say, 7 PM? You're still gonna let me pick you up at your flat, are you?"
"I mean if you insist, sure, you can come pick me up," Keiji replied, "see you on Monday then."
"I'll look forward to it," Jeanie warbled through the speakers, "bye brother!"
"See?" Yuito asked, after he saw that Jeanie ended the call, "did that hurt?"
"No, it didn't," Keiji replied, "that doesn't make me less nervous though."
"Don't worry," Yuito replied, "if she's as drunk on Monday as she's right now, chances are she won't remember your date afterwards anyway."
"She's drunk?"
"As fuck," Yuito answered, "didn't you hear?"
"Not at all," Keiji replied, "now I feel bad for disturbing her."
"Quit feeling bad about everything already. How often do I have to tell you you're awesome."
"Say it twenty more times and I'm fine for today."
"You're awesome, you're awesome, you're awesome..." Yuito started, "you're awesome, you sure don't wanna cut me off already?"
"I love you buddy."
"Love you too."
"Actually," Keiji started, "I was trying to see if they're gonna tell me something about her on TV. You know, what I did basically the entire day. If she's Top 2, then there must be some coverage about her."
"So?" Yuito asked, "did you learn something?"
"Lots of commercial for her duel next Saturday. The Silver Princess versus the Northerner for the title. Apparently its sold out already," Keiji said, "also a rerun of one of her older duels, but only the game play, not much else. She's really good, if I can tell."
"Does she put on a show like Ever White?"
"Nah, she decimates her opponent as fast as possible. I also didn't expect her deck, I supposed it was more like Hatsukos from the theme, but she uses huge airships loaded with guns. It's nice watching her wreck havoc."
"Sounds like it looks cool."
"It looks amazing. I'm kinda proud of my sister. If I can say that."
"That's a first if I've ever seen one."
"Who are you kids?! What are you doing in my spot?!" the two of them heard a man yell when he saw both of them sitting next to the pillar.
"Fuck off, I see no name tag," Keiji told him, "besides, were not here to stay."
"I can write my name into your forehead if you want to, punk!" he man yelled, pulling a knife on the pair.
"With the benefit of hindsight," Yuito said, turning towards the exit.
"Yeah we gotta go," Keiji added, and the both of them sprinted out of the car park.
Once the two of them were out of distance, they settled down around a street corner to take their breath.
"Been a while since we've last done that," Keiji said, panting heavily, "reminds me of old times."
"Old times aren't that long ago," Yuito said, "mind you. Funny how that all seems so long ago."
"So would you say we've been in conflict with that guy?"
"If that wasn't conflict than I don't know what is."
"Then why did nothing happen," Keiji asked, "you said that Crosspoint would react to conflict."
"I said it would and it did last time," Yuito replied, "I don't know what went wrong this time."
Almost on command, Yuitos Duel Disk received a call from Hatsuko.
"You won't believe what just happened here," she said over the speakers, "I've got the red Crosspoint. How's things on your end?"
"Can Saburo confirm this?" Keiji asked, leaning over Yuitos Duel Disk with his friend.
"Buddy if you'd have seen what I saw," they heard Saburo over the speakers, "you wouldn't doubt this girl. To answer your question yes I've seen it. But since you were asking, I take it you weren't?"
"Nope," Yuito said, "an old man appeared and threatened us with a knife, but nothing happened in regards to the Crosspoint."
"That's not possible," Hatsuko replied, "that is the exact preset for a Contest of Champions, it took less than that on our end. The blue Crosspoint should've reacted."
"Wait blue?" Keiji asked, "why blue?"
"The Crosspoints are all color-coded," the girl answered, "the one Yuito has is purple, mine is red, and green, yellow, orange and blue are still out there."
It took Yuito a second to understand where Keiji was going with that question: "Hatsuko, would it be possible, to put a Crosspoint into something else than a card?"
"Where are you getting at?" Hatsuko said, "I mean, yes, I see no reason why it wouldn't be possible."
Both Yuito and Keiji thought of the last time they've seen a bright blue light with almost mystical proportions. In hindsight it seemed so simple.
The blue Crosspoint was in Tians lantern.
"Because I might know who has the blue Crosspoint," Yuito said, "I met him a while ago and if he keeps the Crosspoint where I think he does, then he already had it back then."
"Well?" Saburo asked, "who is it? Do we know him too?"
"I doubt it," Yuito said, "I only met him once myself. He's a really strange guy, he kept talking about my father and uses Ritual Monsters as well. He keeps the Crosspoint in a lantern, which he carries around."
"Sounds strange," Hatsuko said, "if you're convinced the Crosspoints not there, we should call it a day for now. I'll get back to you when I have a new location for you. Good luck with Ever White tomorrow."
Yuito wanted to respond and thank her, but she had already hung up when he got the chance.
"Did I say something bad?" he asked his friend, "did we upset her?"
"Maybe its just been a long day for her too," Keiji said, "let's go home, should we?"
"Do you want to get a burger, or something?" Saburo asked after Hatsuko ended the call with the other two boys, "you seem pretty upset."
"Doesn't this bother you too?" Hatsuko asked, "Yuito appearing out of nowhere at the time the Crosspoints awaken, using Rituals. I get my Crosspoint against the guy who brought Yuito into the spotlight, who also uses Rituals all of sudden. And then Yuito claims to know some guy who carries a third Crosspoint around in a lantern."
"You do not believe him?" Saburo asked.
"I don't know," she replied, "if anything he could just claim it himself and tell us this story."
"That's nonsense, you said one needs to have the elder blood to claim more than one Crosspoint."
"He has the elder blood. Or at least that's what Ava said. He created his Runecross End Wizard before he defeated the officer," she explained, "and not after he won, like I did."
"That changes things quite a bit," Saburo said, "a little too many coincidences for my tastes."
"Exactly my thinking," Hatsuko said, "but I think I need to do some more thinking before I can figure out what to do next."
"Sounds fair enough," he replied, "whatever you need I'll be there for you. And I still want one of these Crosspoints for myself."
"I'll keep that in the back of my head," Hatsuko smirked, "now if you'll excuse me, I have one more meeting tonight."
"What?" Saburo asked confused, "with whom? Shouldn't I come with you?"
"Don't worry," Hatsuko replied, "I'll be fine."
Going to a burger joint at 2 AM Saturday morning had two advantages for Hatsuko: There quite a few people but they didn't pay attention to whatever was going on right next to their plate. Nobody was bothering you no matter how weird you looked.
And whenever Hatsuko was upset, she needed the most unhealthy, fatty food available.
So setting her meetup with Ava right here was hitting two birds with one stone for her.
"There's a lot I'm missing from where I come from," the black-clothed woman said, fingering the small portion of fries she got herself, "but the food is definitely not among it."
"This joint isn't really that representative of your cultural heritage," Hatsuko said, "but it comes pretty close."
"So you have the red Crosspoint and the blue one is most likely out of your reach," Ava concluded what Hatsuko had been telling her while eating, "but the purple is with your friend, whom you don't entirely trust anymore."
"That about covers it," Hatsuko replied.
"I asked you to figure out some things about your friends heritage. What did you find?"
"Whatever I could without a surname. His mother died when he was five and his father a few years after that. But there's only a condolence in the papers for him, without a confirmed death day or cause of death. There has been a funeral, but I don't know if that means anything."
"To be cautious, we'll have to assume that two men with the elder blood are still alive. Your friend and his father."
"And why is that bad?"
"That man disappeared without a trace. It appears that my sister is lining up her soldiers."
"Your sister?" Hatsuko asked confused, "so you're telling me this entire thing is just a family feud?"
"Not quite, the stakes are a little larger than that."
"Then would you mind telling me the stakes? I'm pretty involved as is."
Ava just sighed, but then complied: "How old do you think I am?"
"In your forties, maybe? Fifties?" Hatsuko took her best guess, "If its less than that I'm deeply sorry."
"It's about 1000 years more than that."
"Now you're just pulling my leg."
"The last convergence took place a thousand years ago. I was there. My opponent was my sister. She won. I don't know what she wished for, but it caused me to become… like this," Ava explained with obvious discomfort, "wandering the earth for the last thousand years knowing that my sister has even worse plans for the coming convergence. I don't know where she is or what she's planning. So I decided to eliminate what she needed most for the convergence: The elder blood. I soon realized that I could no longer bear the powers of the Crosspoint so I can only hope its the same for her. Without the elder blood, her plans are void."
"Now I realize what I sound like when I talk to people about this kind of thing."
"I realize its hard to believe, but you don't seem like the kind of girl who lacks faith."
"I am a girl with faith."
"So I beg you to believe me. It may not seem like it but I'm desperate for allies."
"If we're not allies at this point, then I don't know."
"That's nice to hear," Ava replied, "but if everything goes according to what I planned, I only need to ask you for two more things."
"Which are?"
"Since I supposed you don't want to go on an extended vacation right now, I just ask you to keep the Crosspoint save from whatever could harm it. If you have a friend you trust, you might try having them claim more Crosspoints to keep them apart. That would be the first thing."
"Sounds doable. Not like I intended to give it away," Hatsuko said, "the second thing?"
"Yuitos address."
Hearing this, Hatsuko tightened the grip on the burger she was eating: "Why would you want his address."
"I told you," the woman replied, "without the elder blood, my sisters plans become void."
"You're gonna hurt him."
"I'll try my best to make it quick."
"I…," Hatsuko replied close to tears, "I don't think I can..."
"Drastic situations require taking drastic measures girl. You weren't there during the last convergence. But my sister did horrible things to me back then and I don't want to imagine what she will do this time," Ava pressed, "I'd do anything to stop that from happening."
"Promise me you'll do it quick," Hatsuko whimpered, as she told Ava where she could find Yuito.
"I'll promise. I don't enjoy doing this, but its for the good of the world," she said as she got up.
"Another thing," Ava said as she turned herself to go, "if you ever come across my sister, run like hell. You'll recognize her. Her names Eva."
When the woman had left, Hatsuko stared down her hands, as the tears filled her eyes. She squeezed the burger so hard the had ketchup all over herself.
Literal blood on her hands.
If she really had done anything to Yuito, she'd never forgive herself. But maybe Ava was right. Maybe it needed to be done.