Chapter Twenty-Seven

Yuito needed to take a seat on one of the churches benches as his father approached him from down the aisle. He looked just as he remembered him; A few years older, as his hair started to go gray, and undoubtedly dashing in the white tuxedo he wore, but still just like his old dad.

"I missed you so much," he said, and when he saw Yuito just staring silently at him, he went on: "I know what I did to you. What you've been through. And let me start by saying how sorry I am. I would've never left you if there was another way."

"Why?" Yuito just pressed past his lips with all the confusing feelings in his head.

"For tonight," Eva answered for him, "and don't hate your father. If you need to hate someone, hate me, because this was solely my idea, all he did was follow suit."

"You didn't tell him yet?" Yuitos father addressed her, "I thought he'd know by now."

"I'm sorry Suito, I didn't have the chance until right now," Eva replied, "but now that we're all here, the moment is better anyhow."

"Alright, I'll start then," Suito began to explain, "Many years before, a few years before you were born, I met Eva. It was in fact on my wedding, when I married your mother, that she approached me. She told me about the Crosspoints, and that I was the last living person besides her and her sister to have the Elder Blood. The rest of our kind were slowly but surely eradicated by her sister Ava over the course of the last millennium. And she told me that my life has had a great purpose ever since my birth."

"To take part in the convergence, that is," Eva took over, "since both me and my sister are unable to, due to her fatal wish during the last convergence. I showed you some of it back when we dueled, which I can do, I know you're gonna ask, just because of the power I acquired back then. My sister wished that she may have 'all the power' of the Crosspoints, but for some reason, it didn't. It only gave her half, and bestowed the other half upon me. Ever since then, we're both moving through time, slowly moving towards each, but never meeting."

"May I resume with my part of the story now?" Suito interrupted her.

"Of course, I'm sorry."

"It was obviously a lot to grasp at first. But Eva never relented and when she finally got me to believe, we had become very close friends. A few years later, me and my wife had you and sadly, she passed away shortly after your birth. I can tell you that that was hard for me on its own, but Eva was rejoiced when she found out that the Elder Blood had passed on to you. But that was when our problems began. As you know, for a contest of champions, both champions must be in conflict with each other. But since both me and you were family, it was very unlikely for us to be conflicted at heart. So Eva had an idea."

"To abandon me," Yuito coldly stated.

"Yes, as cruel as that may sound," Suito continued, "we waited until we were sure you could take care of yourself. And we only moved so far out of sight from you, at least the first few years. Then we sadly lost track of you and spent the next years trying to find you again. Which is why Alessia became a talent scout. We knew you had my old deck with you, so we figured that given the circumstances you most likely would try and get a contract as a Combat Duelist. That is also why Eva took on her guise as Ever White, to monitor the scene and try and track you down."

"We almost gave up on you when we hadn't reconnected with you by the time the Crosspoints awakened," Eva said, "Oru and Suito both claimed the blue and yellow ones respectively, and using the intelligence the latter provided, we were finally able to track you down. So we kept our distance and made sure you stumbled upon the Crosspoints. We knew that this girl Hatsuko had been researching about them, narrowly avoiding crossing paths with us, so we had to figure out to get you two to make contact. We made Mr. Sonjun book you for the tournament, by the means of taking out the previous duelist and then rigged the group selection to get you into a group with Hatsuko."

"We counted on you becoming fast friends and so you did," Suito continued, "and you know the rest of the story."

"Well, too bad for you," Yuito decided to speak up, "because I will not fight you during the convergence. So your whole plan was for naught."

"How much else did you not tell him?" Suito turned to Eva again, who shrugged at the question.

"I only met him once and we didn't really have time to talk then. He also turned down Orus request of joining us," she answered him, before she turned to him again: "We do not necessarily need you to fight in the convergence, although it would be much easier for us if you did. Also, what I should probably tell you is that… Well. I know you've been talking to my sister. About how wishing to the Crosspoints is a bad thing. I mean she should know, she experienced it first hand when they messed up her wish a thousand years ago. But not wishing to the Crosspoints is way worse. During the convergence, they accumulate an enormous amount of natural energy, enough to grant any wish one desires. What would happen if one were not to wish to them?"

"It would vanish, I presume," Yuito guessed.

"Energy cannot be created or destroyed, that's one of the basic principles of physics," Eva explained, "You see, the Convergence wasn't originally about getting a wish, even though that was a nice bonus effect. It was to make sure that the energy that amassed was given a controlled outlet. What happens when the energy is set free uncontrolled… I do not know what exactly happens since no one ever lived to tell the tale, but it is safe to say we're looking at an extinction level combustion."

Yuito didn't know what to reply, but in the end what she said sounded logical, if that was possible given the nature of things they were talking about.

"So wishing to the Crosspoints is bad because they might not properly grant your wish," Yuito recapped, "but not wishing to the Crosspoints is worse because it could destroy the world. But that makes no sense. Why would your sister want that to happen? Given that she does what she can to prevent the convergence from taking place?"

"First of all, let me correct you there really quickly," Eva answered, "the convergence will always take place. It is a cosmic event that connects the natural energy of the Crosspoints to the cosmic energy of outer space, which amplifies it thousandfold. What you mean is the last Contest of Champions that happens during the convergence. My people used to call it The Duel, although that would be misleading in this time period. Don't worry, that's a common misconception. As to why she'd want to prevent The Duel from happening, I don't know. I can only assume, and even then it wouldn't be accurate."

"Please don't call it The Duel, that's so very confusing."

"Very well."

"So that's how you want to convince me to take part in the convergence? Guilt trip me into it because it might blow up the city?"

"I see you're not a good listener," Eva laughed, "I already said you don't have to take part. All we need is your Crosspoint and we'll figure out who your dads opponent will be otherwise. You'd however make things a lot easier for us if you did."

"And why should I?" Yuito yelled at her, "I lived on the streets for years. I don't know how many times I almost died and now you're here telling me that it was because you needed an opponent for my father to fight?"

"I know you're angry, and I know you're not going to forgive any of us for doing it. But you have been out there. You have seen what those people do. Not because Jeanie told them to. But because they now have the means to do it," Eva said, "and here we are, with the means to stop them. Not just stop them tonight, but stop them indefinitely. A world without conflict will be a world full of peace. That's why we did what we did. I know your father apologized to you, but I will not. I would do everything I did again, and even more, if I had to."

Yuito took a moment to think back to when he was driving through the city with Alessia. It was only a few minutes ago, but it seemed like it happened so long ago, ages almost. He had seen the destruction, the chaos. Jeanie told him a lot about it, but never how she intended to stop the fights in the streets. If she had a way to stop it, of course.

"Okay," Yuito replied, "you got me far enough to consider helping you. But I need some time to think."

"Of course," his father spoke up, "you'll get all the time we can muster. I reckon you'd like to be left alone for a moment?"

"Yes, please," he said, "I need to think this through."

"Please, there's a small side room this way," Suito directed his son to the far end of the cathedral, "I'll lead you."

Once the both of them were out of hearing distance, Eva turned to Alessia and Tian: "Now, for the next part. The convergence is fast approaching, the Crosspoints are eager to merge. Follow them, they will lead you towards your final challenge."

"What are you going to do?" Tian asked, "are you staying here to oversee the events?"

"No, I will have a different task," she explained, "The yellow Crosspoint showed Suito the future. There is someone out there who will disrupt our plans. I will head there to prevent any tampering. As soon as you two have acquired the last two Crosspoint you'll get them to Suito as fast as possible."

"That means we might not see each other again," Tian said to Eva, before giving her a goodbye kiss, "farewell my love. I wish you all the luck in the world."

"Farewell my love," Eva replied, before Tian vanished with a flash of blue light.

"Where do you need to go?" Alessia asked her after a short moment.

"Not far, about three blocks west," she replied.

"I can take you, I think that's on my way anyhow."

"Good, I'd hate walking there," Eva said, "but you better pick up your husband as well. You might be facing two opponents at once."

"I hoped you'd say that," Alessia replied, "Carter has been very eager to get revenge on that little bitch."

"Please tell me this is all just a sick joke," the king asked for the fifth time this evening, clutching to the glass of whiskey in his hand.

"Do I really need to repeat myself?" Jeanie replied annoyed. Both of them, a high ranking member of the clergy as well as a few members of the kings guard – well, soon to be queens guard – were currently in one of the lounges of the palace. The topmost one, to be exact, as it had a balcony that let it overlook the cityscape.

"I've told you to look at the city," she went on, "do you really think that this is a joke?"

The sight from up here wasn't pretty, neither for Jeanie or the King, considering they could see smoke and fires spreading all over the city, as well as monsters flying above the skyscrapers.

"It has to be," he replied, "because I don't understand it."

"I made my case pretty clear back in the stadium," Jeanie answered, before taking a sip from her glass of wine. She deserved a victory drink after this evening.

"If you had these… concerns for our city why did you never talk to me about it?"

"Oh I don't know," Jeanie snapped at him, "maybe because I can count the times you've actually listened to what I said on one hand? That means it was five times or less, before you ask. But its more of figurative speech. It's not like I keep a list. More accurate would be four times."

"I do not recall you ever bringing this up," her father replied, "so don't give me that attitude."

"You can give me all the attitude you want, but that doesn't change the fact that the power balance here has shifted drastically," Jeanie continued, "the city is in an uproar and you don't have the power to stop it. Only I do. And you know my terms."

She gave a quick glance to the paper lying in front of her father. His abdication. Once he signed it, the crown would automatically go the next in line, and with her being her fathers only child that wasn't missing, the church guy would have to crown her Queen immediately.

"You're holding me hostage over the destruction of the city," her father simply stated, before finishing his drink: "I'd like another one, please."

Jeanie nodded to one of the kings guards to comply, before she went on: "I never meant any harm. If you weren't so stubborn it would already be over."

"Not until you tell me why you do this," he rebuffed her, "you can tell everybody else you're doing it for the people but I know that's not true. There's more people out there dying that you could ever think of saving with this."

"You need to crack a few eggs to make an omelet."

"But throwing them at the wall isn't gonna cook them."

"Where'd you get that from? Have you been up all night watching reality TV again?"

"Don't change the subject," the King said, "my question still stands. You never cared for the people, why would you suddenly start."

"You're getting to the core of it," Jeanie replied, "you don't know me."

"That's ridiculous," the King said dumbfounded, "you're my daughter, of course I know you."

"What's my favorite color? Favorite animal? Favorite food?"

"Green, kittens, and spaghetti, but with lots of cheese."

Jeanie took a sharp breath before she replied: "Keenans favorite color, Keenans favorite animal, Keenans favorite food. Or what it used to be."

The King wanted to reply something, but Jeanie quickly cut him off: "Did it never occur to you, not even once, that the daughter who has been living with you for most of her life deserved at least a little bit of attention that you gave to the son that you last saw fifteen years ago?"

"Is that it?" the king replied breathlessly, "you're doing all of this because you're jealous of Keenan?"

"I'm not jealous!" Jeanie yelled at him, "And this is not about Keenan. I'm done with you! Right now, I am the one staging a revolution against you and right here we are, still talking about Keenan. He's been gone for fifteen fucking years and whenever we talk about anything we eventually end up talking about Keenan! I am sick of always being only the second best in everything, losing to someone who's not even playing! The Silver Princess, what a cruel joke!"

"I cannot believe you are being this selfish," the King snapped back at her, "you don't know if your brother is out there right now. Maybe he's in the midst of all this now! I know you don't believe it, but I believe, no, I know he is still alive!"

"Of course he is!" Jeanie yelled, "he lives in a tiny apartment on 48th street and shares a bed with his best friend. He goes by the name Keiji these days."

This finally silenced the king, who just stared at Jeanie with a blank expression. She savored every bit of those looks.

"Oh yes," Jeanie went on, "I found him. Without even looking for him. He's been living under your nose for years and you didn't realize it."

"For how long have you known?"

"A few weeks. Not long, actually."

"And you never told me?" the King asked, on the verge of crying.

"I considered it," she explained, "but then I met him. Turns out he doesn't want to have anything to do with you."

"Does he even know who I am?"

"Oh, so you would be fine if he came back just because you're king, and because you're rich? Even though he utterly despises you?"

"You don't have the right to decide that!"

"I don't, but he does," Jeanie snapped at him, "face it father, you're horrible at finding your children and you're horrible at keeping them."

This indeed silenced the King for good, who sank back in his chair, only to lean back forward and put his seal under the abdication.

"So I lost both my babies now," he said, before handing the papers to the priest standing by.

"The King just resigned," the man declared, doing what Jeanie has brought him in for, "Long live the Queen."

Jeanie knelt in front of him, and he took the crown off of his fathers head before placing it on hers: "Rise, Queen Jeanie I of Myoto City and Her Majesties other properties. Long may she reign."

"Long may she reign," the queens guard joined in, as Jeanie rose from the floor.

She did it. She finally did it, she won. For once, she was the best. Almost ecstatic, she went out on the balcony. The air was full of smoke, but she took a deep breath nonetheless: "Don't worry, it's gonna be over soon. Then we'll start making some real change."

She didn't know how long she looked over the city – her city – teary-eyed, but the thing that distracted her from the view was a both pleasant and surprising sound: bare feet walking across the marble floor.

The sounds from the streets were unbearable. The varied from glass breaking, things hitting the concrete and metal being hit by heavy things over screams of varying volumes to the squishy sounds of people being trampled by giant monsters.

So far no one managed to barge into Saburos penthouse, he and Hatsuko were still cowering behind the couch. There had been some menacing sounds coming from the lower floors, but so far everything had been safe up here.

"We cannot hide forever up here you know?" he eventually addressed Hatsuko with as low a voice as he could.

"I don't think you need to whisper given what's going on out there," she replied, "also, we don't really have anywhere to go, you know?"

"I could Summon one of my Neoncrafts," he continued, "we could fly away."

"Those things are like giant 'shoot me' signs, we'd be drawing all the fire," Hatsuko said, "that'd be wicked dangerous."

"Only for a few moments. I'd do the flying, you'd do the fighting. I doubt they'd pursue us all when we get out of their reach. And the few that do we could take out together. And come on," Saburo explained his thoughts, "you love wicked dangerous."

"Changes the tone of what I said quite a lot," she admitted, before giggling.

"Is that fear of death or actual amusement?"

"Both plays into it."

"Okay then," Saburo continued, "on the first sign of danger we do that and get out of here."

"And where to?" Hatsuko asked, "the entire city is in uproar. The Royal Palace would probably be the only safe place, considering Jeanie is barricaded in there."

"My parents have a summer retreat in the mountains. It's not too far from the city. If we can make it that far we should be safe from the revolution. The problem is that..."

"…lantern guy can just blink in there and then we have nowhere left to run or hide."

"That's the thing," Saburo confirmed, "we just need to decide what's the bigger threat. So we either camp out in the streets or go to our summer retreat."

"I'm pretty sure that would've rhymed nicely if you said retreats instead of retreat."

"Why would I do that?"

"We're in the middle of a civil war, you could to at least something to make this situation a little less miserable."

"You're not really helping eit…."

Saburo didn't get to the end of that sentence as he was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass, as a flying monster grazed the windowfront of their apartment. He couldn't help himself but scream in shock, with Hatsuko quickly putting her hand on his mouth.

"Shut up you idiot, you wanna kill us all?" she whispered into his ear, as the sound of several feet ran towards them from the window.

There were three of them and they appeared to have left their monsters outside. So far they hadn't spotted neither Hatsuko and Saburo nor the three bodyguards which were crouched behind a flipped table on the other side of the room.

"Oh hells yeah, this place is jackpot!" one of them yelled, shoving anything valuable he could find into his pockets, "Hey man, what are you doing?"

Another one of them was in the midst of smashing one of their tables with a chair, before throwing it out of the window: "Fuck all this shit! I'm not here to shove chandeliers into my pockets, I'm here to show those fuckers who's boss now!"

He took out a pocket knife, slicing the couch up as he continued: "C'mon, there's gonna be enough riches for us in the palace!"

"Oh hells yeah, we're gonna go to the palace!" the third guy said, while still collecting stuff, before he turned around to stare one of the three bodyguards straight in the eye: "Here's three of them!"

As if that was their cue, the three bodyguards stormed out from their hiding place straight into the pillagers. The guy who spotted them got his head bashed against the wall twice by one of them, knocking him out cold, but the other two were too far, as they managed to put cards on their Duel Disks before the men reached them.

One of their bodyguards was grabbed by a Kurama, which flew him out of the window and unceremoniously dropped him down onto the concrete, while the second and the third one were incinerated when a Blazing Inpachi unleashed its fire blast onto them.

"RUN!" Hatsuko suddenly yelled into Saburos ear, before sprinting towards the broken windowfront.

The three invaders turned their heads and yelling "There's more of them!" before Blazing Inpachi turned around to face them. It was just a matter of seconds before the flames reached them.

Clutching Saburos hand tightly, Hatsuko took one deep breath and just took the leap over the edge, pulling Saburo after her, who was still fiddling with his Duel Disk.

And not a moment too early, because the flame shot out of the apartment just in time to graze Saburos feet.

It was a surreal feeling to both of them, seeing the street down there coming closer and closer as monsters, fire and shards of glass filled the air around them. Almost anticipating Saburo to not being able to Summon his monster on time, Hatsuko already closed her eyes and braced for the impact. Only that it came sooner and less painful than she imagined.

"Upheaval, Neoncraft Over Unit!"

The impact on the metallic robot was hard, hard enough to take Hatsukos breath for a moment, but they were still fairly high so it was far from lethal. She eventually managed to get hold of the smooth surface, with a little help from Saburo who was sitting on the monsters head.

"Now, let's get out of here," he shouted, before Over Unit turned into fly mode and tried to gain some mileage away from the building, to get out of Blazing Inpachis range.

Unfortunately, their stylish getaway didn't go unnoticed. They immediately had the invaders Kurama on their tails, but Over Unit was able to make short work of it with a punch, even though that nearly knocked Hatsuko off of it.

"Leave the fighting to me!" she yelled, "I'll get thrown off at this rate!"

She turned around to see a whole army of skybound monsters heading towards them; Winged Dragons, Sky Scouts, even a Seiyaryu was among them. She tried to fiddle out the monster she wanted from the Extra Deck compartment of her Duel Disk, but the flight winds made it really hard.

"Do something, they're onto us!" Saburo yelled, as a blue fire ball from the pink dragon landed a hit on Over Unit, the impact nearly causing Hatsuko to drop the card.

"Just do something already, we're gonna crash!" the boy yelled with utter terror as both the monsters and the ground came closer, but Hatsuko was eventually able to start up her Duel Disk and place the card she wanted on it.

"Arise, Psydame Magi-Veronique!"

There was a huge red flash of light when the Summon went through, enough to make short work of some of the smaller monsters chasing after them, before the monster was even visible. At first it was just a single woman with bright red skin and a flowing golden dress that appeared floating in the air in front of the monster army. But as soon as she opened her mouth, dozens, hundreds more of them appeared all over the place, all of them letting out a sonic wave that tore any monsters in the sky – and lots of those on the streets – to shreds.

"Wow." Saburo stated breathlessly, upon seeing what Hatsukos monster had wrought.

"Talk about a Crosspoint-powered monster."

"Wait," he interrupted her victory gloating, "do you really think it was a good idea to Summon that thing right now?"

"What do you..." before Hatsuko could finish, she saw exactly what Saburo meant, as her one woman army cried out load and released a bright red flash into the sky, almost like a signal flare. Hatsuko hurried to take the card of her Duel Disk, causing it to disappear, but she feared that the damage had already been done.

"The Crosspoints are calling out to each other," she realized.

Saburo simply added: "Then we really are in the endgame now." before maneuvering his damaged Over Unit into a small backalley, before making it disappear as well. Magi-Veronique had given them some mileage but they were still in the midst of a battlefield.

"I think we should run," Saburo said, with Hatsuko nodding in agreement.

And thus they headed off, trying to stay away from the busy streets as they went nowhere in particular, just away from the giant signal her Crosspoint had just given to their most dangerous chasers.

Apparently, the rioter didn't care enough for a cripple and a giant, because getting to the palace proved to be ridiculously easy for Keiji and Daichi. The castle itself however, was what they had deemed the biggest problems as Jeanie fortified it with dozens of kingsguards protecting it with their weapons drawn. But when the two of them walked up to them they just… knelt. Some of them stared at Keiji in disbelief before the did, but eventually, they were all on his knees for him.

He didn't quite know what to do first, whether he should wave or just walk past them. So he decided to get off of Daichis back, since they were no longer in a hurry and just walked straight the fuck into the Royal Palace.

One of the guards even told them that his sister was in the topmost lounge, on the balcony and how to get there.

And now here he was.

His sister was standing out on the balcony, a crown on top of her head, her eyes resting on the city she was currently destroying.

And on a chair, with a glass of whiskey in his hand, the King. And his father? Upon closer look, the resemblance between the two of them was uncanny, the man looked just like an old version of himself. Keiji had thought of the day he'd meet his father a lot, even though he would never admit to it. He always thought about what he might feel when he saw him for the first ime. Hate? Anger? Love? All of those?

He took a moment to look at him and so did his father, who stared back like he had just seen a ghost, frozen in his seat, his glass stuck in mid air. Keiji searched his head for a feeling but there was just… nothing. It was strange but once he thought about it, it made sense. Because that was all that that man was to him. A stranger.

He quickly averted his gaze, to look back at his sister who had become aware of his presence.

"Keiji!" she exclaimed with glee and relief, "oh I'm so glad you're here. Even though I gave my men explicit orders not to harm you and to protect the hospital, I was still worried sick."

As he slowly approached her, she opened her arms thinking he wanted to hug her, but instead, he simply smacked her across the face.

Hard.

Hard enough to knock her off her feet, sending her wine glass to break on the marble floor and the crown to slither across the balcony.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" she screamed confused, as he approached and picked her up by her dress.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" he yelled straight into her face, "have you lost your fucking mind?!"

"Release me at once!" Jeanie cried out as she struggled to get out of his grasp.

The kingsguards in the room rushed to her aid, but Daichi stood in their way and when he picked one of them up and tossed him across the room, the other two didn't dare come closer. In the end, they certainly were unsure how to handle this situation. A prince hitting the queen was certainly new to them.

"Look at it!" Keiji screamed at the top of his lungs, turning Jeanie to face the city, "is this what you want? Dying people? Destroyed buildings, traumatized children, families torn apart? Tell me, is that what you want?!"

"I never meant any harm!" she yelled back at him, "if father had abdicated a little sooner, this would be over by now!"

"Are you fucking stupid? You think anyone out there would still listen to you? That they would just stop fighting?"

"Release me and listen to me for once! I know exactly what to do now if you let me!"

"Then why didn't you?" Keiji still yelled in her face, but loosened the grip on her gown, "you have what you want, so do it!"

"I was just about to when you assaulted me!"

"No you weren't! I saw you looking over the city like you enjoy the fires!"

"Maybe I got… distracted?" Jeanie admitted, prompting Keiji to push her back into the railing.

"Distracted!?" he yelled, "you fix this! Right now! Do it!"

"Relax, I don't like to be stressed," Jeanie tried to reassure him, as she got her Duel Disk.

"Do you think this is a game?" Keiji asked, what only got a chuckle out of Jeanie.

"Yes. But one that I designed, so I can switch it off whenever I want," she explained calmly as she cycled through the applications on her Duel Disk, "you see, I have this program called the 'broomstick' installed. Upon activated it will spread in a similar vein to the virus, reinstall the limiter and make all solid vision monsters non-lethal again."

"Then fucking activate it!" Keiji yelled, still angry but also a little relieved that she at least knew a way to end this.

"Chill I just need to… wait," Jeanie laughed and hit her forehead, "I don't have it on this Duel Disk, because this is a rental one we got for the title duel. You know, to prevent a rigged shuffler or something like that."

"Why on earth are you so calm?" Keiji cried out on disbelief.

"Relax brother, I'll just radio one of the guys," she said, as she pulled the device out of her handbag, "Anyone on comms?"

"Hello?" Gorous voice came from the other end after a few moments.

"Gorou!" Jeanie said affectionately, "dear, the plan went through, I just got the crown. I'd like you to run the 'broomstick' for me if you would."

"Oh shut the fuck up, blondie," the voice snapped back at her.

"I'm sorry? This was an order and I am your Queen. You are going to obey me!" Jeanie screamed into the radio, her confidence faltering for the first since Keiji got here.

"Go take your orders and shove them wherever you want!"

Instead of answering, Jeanie simply flicked a switch on her radio to change the channel and once again asked: "Anyone on comms?"

"Yes?" came the answer from an unfamiliar voice.

"Raiko, finally, someone with some sense inside them," Jeanie said, "dearie I'd like you to do two things for me. First and foremost, run the broomstick for me, then, you're gonna find Gorou, break all his teeth out and bring them to me, along with his toothless self."

"Didn't you get the memo bitch? We ain't working for you anymore!" Raiko yelled back over the radio.

"You were nice eye candy while it lasted, but after we had our fun in the city we're gonna come visit the palace for a change. I'll tell Gorou to rip your teeth out while we're at it."

Screaming with frustration, Jeanie flung the radio away, unfortunately hitting a kingsguard in the head and knocking him out cold, before screaming again, this time directed straight into the city.

"Now you understand what I said?" Keiji also yelled at her, "you have no control over this! They're not gonna do what you want anymore!"

"Shut the fuck up I need to think!" she snapped at him, with visible distress in her eyes.

"What are we gonna do?" Keiji asked her anyway.

"Get my Duel Disk," she eventually said, "my actual Duel Disk. With the broomstick program. It's in my throne room, in my hideout. Where I first me you."

She directed the last bit to Daichi, who immediately replied: "Not to question your logic my goddess, but that's across nearly the entire city."

"Yeah," she replied, "so what."

"We need to figure out a path that stays from the main roads, we got here pretty easy with that strategy," Keiji started to brainstorm.

"We're gonna need to run if we want to make it there before sunrise," Daichi added, "it's hard but not impossible. Especially if we have the rioters chasing us."

"No," Jeanie simply stated as she started up her Duel Disk again.

"What no?" Keiji snapped at her, but was silenced as he heard the sound of an engine start up.

"I don't run from peasants," Jeanie replied coldly as her Raid Airship ascended into view from the balcony, "they run from me."