Summer heat makes it impossible to go to the park today, so the group decides to spend it relaxing at Yumi's house. Will all four of them be able to get along as well as they could hope? More importantly, will there finally be some takoyaki?
It was good to have friends. Yumi thought this while laying despondently on her bedroom floor in the least amount of clothing possible. A heat wave had just swept over the entire city and moved in on her tiny house on the outskirts. The best part, of course, was that their proximity to the ocean meant it turned the air into a thick, soupy death paste that clung to her and everything she loved while roasting them, as well.
Thinking of friends was about the only thing keeping her alive at this point. She'd met three great people in only a few days, and it was only the start of summer. It was the first time she met anyone she really felt a connection to like this, and it made her happy beyond words.
That isn't to say she'd had no friends before this point. There were people she knew at school who she was acquainted with, but none of them ever really made the jump to true friendship. Through a combination of living so far away, differing interests, and her slightly overbearing personality, she'd just failed to form the same kind of bond with almost anyone as she had with Sakuya, Hideo, and Kazuhiko.
She couldn't pinpoint why it had gone this way, especially given how short the time between meeting and befriending the latter two was, but she was grateful for it nonetheless. Even after the dueling stopped yesterday, they all managed to hold a conversation for close to two hours about the science behind magical girl transformation sequences and the proper toppings for the perfect ice cream sundae. That last subject inevitably led to another speech about how toppings had to coincide with the same texture as the ice cream and it was blasphemy to try and mix things that don't go together, but even Kazuhiko's blustering was starting to become amusing for her.
Yumi jolted upright, suddenly remember the piece of paper in her overalls' front pocket. Scrambling around the room, she dug into a pile of the garments before finding the right pair from the other day. Inside it was a short, crumpled list of numbers with crude drawings of the owners' faces. She'd made sure to have a way to get in contact with them if the need ever arose, and extreme heat seemed like enough of a reason.
Walking to the phone after a failed attempt at trying to run and falling over her own legs, she began to dial for Sakuya. It rang a few times before she finally heard it pick up. "Hi!" she yelled into it, not even bothering to confirm who it was on the line.
"Hello, Yumi," Sakuya said with a small laugh. "If you're calling to say you can't go to the park today, I get it. It's miserable outside and even I'm not going to make you train in this kind of weather."
"No. I mean, yeah, but no. I just wanted to call and say hi to you." She took a seat against the wall, wrapping the cord around her finger while she talked. "I didn't get to see you at all yesterday and I probably won't get to today, either, so I wanted to see how you're doing."
She laughed again. "I'm fine. I hope you managed to take care of everything without me."
"Yeah, it was fun! I saw Kazuhiko again, and he bought me a booster pack, and I got a rare card out of it, and then we met Hideo, and they dueled Kazuhiko, and they won and became each others rivals, and-"
"Slow down," Sakuya told her. "I'm going to assume you did your training like I told you during all that."
"Oh, yeah, totally," she lied, trying not to break.
"Good. Then tell me who Hideo is. Have I met them at the park?"
"I doubt it," Yumi said, laying down in the hallway. "They don't go out much, so it was kind of just an accident. They said Kazuhiko's hair was bad and he got upset." She giggled remembering his overreaction, able to do so with how well everything ended.
Sakuya seemed to approve. "I think we'd get along," she joked. "I'm glad you called. It was nice being able to talk to you after being away yesterday. Maybe it won't be so hot tomorrow and we'll be able to go back to the park."
"Maybe I could come over later when it's a little cooler," she suggested.
"You'd die out there," Sakuya stated in complete seriousness.
Yumi humphed at the lack of faith. "I could make it," she said quietly.
"I doubt it. It wasn't nearly this hot the other day and you almost passed out from dehydration. You kept talking about how everyone in your family is a heavy sweater after it reaches about 30 degrees. Quite distastefulness, if you ask me."
"I can't help it!" she complained, starting to blush. "It's not my fault my genes are weird."
"I'm just teasing you," Sakuya told her. She thought for a moment, then said, "I'll tell you what. If it gets a little cooler, I'll come over if that's alright. How does that sound?" She received no answer for a several minutes, Yumi having sprinted off to go wake her grandmother who'd passed out in front of the TV.
"Yes! You can even stay over again if you want!" She was bouncing up and down on the other end of the line after finally returning to the call.
"Good. I'll tell you if I can make it in a little while. Talk to you soon." Yumi had already hung up after forgetting to say goodbye. Running back to her room without incident, she went to organize her deck to prepare for Sakuya's hopefully imminent arrival. She was excited to be able to show off some of her new cards from the other day and display the results of her training. Maybe she'd even manage to eke out a win once or twice at this point.
Then she had another thought: One friend is good, but wouldn't more friends be better? Another trip to the phone had her dialing another number off the scrap of paper. It rang several times, but ended without an answer. Puffing out her cheeks, Yumi tried once more with the same result. She called one last time, jumping up and down for good measures.
Finally, there was an answer. "Who the he-"
"Hi!" she screamed into the phone, having learned nothing from the previous conversation.
"Oh, right. Forgot to put your number in my phone and thought you were some stranger." Kazuhiko was in the midst of organizing his hair care products when she called, trying to stay cool and succeeding much more thoroughly given his house had a central air system. "Did you need something?"
"Not really," she answered honestly. "Want to come over to my house? I'm bored and hot."
He laughed haughtily. "Are you serious? How uncool would it be to have a play date at a little kid's house? Besides, I have a ton of important stuff to do today, so it's not like I could even make it."
"Like what?" she asked. There was a long period of uncomfortable silence as Kazuhiko's intense lack of a social life was brought to the forefront of the conversation. "Are you coming over, then?" she said again.
"Fine," he relented with a sigh. It was more about saving face than anything else. Of course he wanted to go hang out with a friend on a boring, miserable day like this, but he had a reputation to uphold, too. More to himself, honestly, in that he would always remain thoroughly convinced of his badassitude and manly coolness befitting a delinquent of his stature.
"Do it in a couple hours so it's not as hot," she said, moving on from his acceptance fairly quickly. "Oh, and see if Hideo wants to come. I only have a landline, so I can't text."
"Yeah, yeah," he said with a grumble. "You sure your grandma's okay with a bunch of scary older kids coming over like this? I could be part of a gang, or a kidnapper, or a guy who does tax evasion."
Yumi laughed. "You're not scary at all." Kazuhiko fell silent again as she continued to giggle. "See you later, then." The phone disconnected, leaving him in yet another period of contemplation over how soft he really was. Even his pompadour seemed to be drooping to match his mood. Or maybe it was just the heat.
Plans made, Yumi hopped up and down and flapped her hands in excitement. This was twice she'd managed to have friends over this summer, and they'd more than doubled today. Now all that was left was finding a way to pass the time before she could expect anyone to show up.
At first, she tried to make changes to her deck, but that proved fruitless after only a few minutes. She'd remade earlier that morning, so there was nothing much she could accomplish without being able to even test it. Instead, she tried to practice doing somersaults across her floor. It took her approximately fourteen seconds to hurt herself and give up.
Her next instinct was to pull herself across the ground with her feet while sitting. It made a horrible squeaking noise against the wood and was starting to burn her from friction, but she was successful with that, at least. Already running out of ideas, she tried to somersault again continued to fail at it. After that, she just gave up and found a piece of paper and a pencil to draw with.
Now there remained the question of what to draw. In this situation, like with many others, she consulted Duel Monsters to find the answer. She spread out some of her cards across the ground, knocking her ankles together in the air as she lay on her stomach trying to force some inspiration onto the canvas.
Eventually, she just started drawing, not really focusing on anything in particular and trying to see what she could come up with just on instinct. After some carefully sketched lines, she produced what was definitely a circle. Progress.
"Why does time have to move slow?" she grumbled to herself. She dotted a pair of eyes into the circle and made a smiling mouth before moving on to another part of the paper. With a sigh, she let her hand run free and do as it pleased, scratching marks into the page with reckless abandon to create what would hopefully turn out to be something close to an actual picture along the way.
After a few minutes of unfocusing her eyes at whatever it was taking shape in front of her, she blinked a few times and studied her work. It was definitely a person. And it was definitely a person she knew. And it was definitely Sakuya.
She wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed to be doodling her like some lovelorn shoujo character or proud of how well the actual drawing came out. It was amateurish, of course, but genuinely recognizable as her friend. Maybe if being a professional duelist didn't pan out how she wanted, she could go to art school and try to make a career out of this.
Rather than dwell on it for any length of time, she took the paper and folded it away into a drawer, hidden forever until she ran out of socks. That was probably enough drawing for the day. Now she was back to square one, though, and not much closer to when something fun would happen.
Finally, she gave up. The only option left was to go to sleep. She couldn't be hot or bored if she was taking a nap. Plopping face first onto a pile of soft clothes, she reached around until she could find her alarm clock, completely unused the entire summer – she always woke up early enough to where it wasn't really necessary. She set the time for a few hours into the future. If she was late, someone would surely come to wake her up, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Settling back into the makeshift pillow, Yumi tried to relax long enough to give in to any residual sleepiness she was feeling, only to begin moving her body trying to dance to an extremely catchy anime theme song she'd heard the other day. Mercifully, her brain got tired of it rather quickly and she was allowed to resume laying prone once more. With a loud sigh, she focused all her energy and every last bit of her tiny amount of patience into sleep. Amazingly, it worked after about forty-five minutes.
By the time she woke up, there was only one dream she could really remember. Maybe it was the only one she'd had in such a short amount of time. Regardless, it was a bit disturbing. She'd found herself within a void of darkness stretching out far beyond anywhere she could see, sketching in white onto some kind of surface in front of her.
In an echo, she could hear someone calling her name. It almost sounded like Sakuya – probably remembering the drawing she'd made by accident earlier and linking these two things together in her dream. She could hear the voice growing louder over time but no less distorted. Either way, she was apparently ignoring it in favor of the expansive drawing she was creating.
After some time, it seemed to be an approximation of a Duel Monsters card, if a bit sketchy and lopsided. Nothing was written on it to indicate any sort of distinguishing features she could use to name it. Standing back from it, the echo had faded away some time ago, leaving her in silence with her drawing.
From the darkness, she heard another voice, though it was much clearer than the last. "Almost time," it said in a slippery, hissed tone. She had no idea what that could mean whether she was dreaming or waking, though it filled her with a dread she couldn't begin to explain. Luckily, her alarm went off soon after, allowing her to explain it away as nothing more than a strange, heat-induced nightmare. Now was no time for dwelling on terrifying dreams, though. She had to start getting ready.
The first step was to get dressed. She looked down at herself and the dingy gray T-shirt she wore like a dress over the only pair of shorts she owned that weren't cutoff overalls. It was...passable, and she wasn't about to wear more clothes in this weather. She couldn't even afford to put her goggles on; the lenses would fog up and get all sweaty on her head. It was just a bad time all around.
Next, she had to wake her grandmother again. Perhaps it was genetic, since the heat would always put the both of them to sleep after a time. This would also involve explaining she invited over two more people without asking permission, as well, so she could only expect the best. And, surprisingly, the best she got.
"I'm just glad you've finally got some friends. This house was always so quiet before." Yumi received a firm pat on the head, feeling relieved that she wasn't about to be scolded for her irresponsibility. "Think those kids are going to want food when they get here?"
"Probably," Yumi responded, mostly thinking of herself now that she was feeling the post-nap hunger. "Can we make takoyaki?" she asked excitedly. "I promised Sakuya we'd have it the next time she came over."
"Sure," her grandmother replied. "I got a good deal on fresh tentacles the other day, so I've been looking for something to do with them." Without even being asked, Yumi was already sprinting to the kitchen to start helping to prepare the food. With her lack of skills, that could prove disastrous in any number of ways.
Luckily for everyone, the phone began to ring before she could start the cooking process. "I'll get it!" she declared, running off once more to find out who was calling. "Hello," she greeted in a much more restrained way.
"You sound like you calmed down," Sakuya said with a chuckle from the other side.
"Hi!" Yumi screamed for no other reason than to be obstinate.
"I was just calling to let you know I'll be coming over soon. The temperature's been dropping a bit, so it should probably be a lot better by the time I leave the house. It's so boring here all by myself."
Yumi held in a squeal before replying, "Hurry before I eat all the food. We're making takoyaki just like I promised."
"You'd better not," she said in a huff.
"I don't know how long I can last. They're just so good. You should just get here faster."
"I'll pull on your ears if I get there and there's nothing left." Yumi blew a raspberry into the speaker, forcing Sakuya to make some sort of odd growling noise before hanging up. Payback for calling her a sweaty mess earlier. It was true, but she didn't need people talking about it.
As soon as she put down the phone, there was a knock at the door. Sakuya really must like takoyaki, too, if she came that quickly. Opening it, though, she was greeted by the sight of Kazuhiko and Hideo (dressed in black and dark gray, respectively) pouring sweat and panting on the doorstep.
Upon seeing their chance, both of them fell face-first into Yumi's house, with only slight relief upon getting out of direct sunlight. "Water," Kazuhiko muttered weakly.
"O...kay," Yumi replied with concern. "Grandma, I think those two are about to die. What do I do?" She was already filling two cups from the tap as she said this, her grandmother continuing to chop vegetables and prep the takoyaki pan with oil.
"Keep them hydrated," she replied, wiping her hands on a rag and following Yumi to the front of the house.
Yumi knelt down to hand Kazuhiko his glass, which he immediately guzzled like someone who'd wandered through the dessert for three days and was finally being given some relief. "You know you two don't have to wear all those clothes when it's this hot." She tried to hand the other to Hideo, but they only pointed to their head. With a shrug, she dumped it on top of the hood, receiving a very casual thumbs up in response.
"Got to...until...inside..." Kazuhiko said between breathes. He dragged himself and his companion over the threshold of the door, immediately throwing off his coat and breathing a sight of relief, beginning to comb his hair back into its familiar shape. "Better."
"At least you're getting to know some interesting characters," the older woman said with a smile as she hung Kazuhiko's discarded school jacket onto a shabby coat rack. "I'm Yumi's grandmother. I don't think I've met either of you two before."
Kazuhiko slowly made it to his feet, rolling up the sleeves on his green T-shirt and running a comb through his pompadour one last time for dramatic flare. "My name is Kazuhiko Mitsuru! Strongest in Chiba and friend to Miss Takano Yumi! This is my rival, Hideo!" Hideo was shakily making it as his speech continued on. "We braved the harsh and unforgiving landscape of this town during the heatwave for the sole purpose of restoring our friend's smile! No gods or monsters could ever hope to stop us once we set our mind to something!"
"I like that one," her grandmother whispered as the boy continued with his flowery introduction. "Reminds me of your grandfather."
"I know, right?" Yumi replied. "Hideo doesn't talk, by the way. They'll show you their phone to read if they have something to say." She received a nod in reply before making the dangerous move to interrupt the ever-growing monologue. "Hey, you all want to sit down? It's a lot of walking to get here without a bike."
Pausing mid-sentence with his right arm pointing dramatically into the air, Kazuhiko straightened to a normal posture. "Sure, where do we go? Nice house, by the way." Leading them to the sitting room past the kitchen, both guests took a seat on the mat flooring.
Yumi went to get everyone more water, which the two gratefully drank as soon as it arrived. "You should have stayed home if it was that much trouble. Don't die just to come to my house."
"Not like we had anything better to do," Kazuhiko replied while cracking his neck. This was a lie, at least on Hideo's part, since they were currently embroiled in finding more shows and comic books to add to the infinitely expanding Westphall Universe. Either way, going to Yumi's house seemed more interesting. They'd already linked Dragon Ball Z to Doctor Who, Marvel Comics, and every show on Cartoon Network circa 2003, so there wasn't really anywhere to go from there, anyway.
Opening a small holder attached to his belt, he retrieved his cards and started to look through them. "Hideo, do you remember what I said I was going to change after that last duel?" Only a shrug was given in response as they were already plunging into more connections, this time involving Puff the Magic Dragon. "Damn it. Miss Yumi, take a look for me."
She blinked as Kazuhiko handed her his deck. "You're going to let me see it?" she asked perplexed.
"Yeah, why not? I trust you enough not to use it against me in a duel. That's not the kind of person you are." He stood up, placing the cards on the table. "Hey, which way's your toilet? I've been holding it for half an hour the whole way over here."
"Down the hall. Go straight forward like you're coming in the door and it'll be the first door on the left near the phone." Yumi was already looking through his deck in amazement at how rare some of the cards were. There were even a few other Synchro Monsters besides the two she'd already seen him use in the several duels she'd viewed or been a part of and was really hoping to see them in action at some point soon.
After several minutes of relief, Kazuhiko exited the hallway and came to the kitchen, watching Mrs. Takano at work making them some food. "Excuse me, ma'am," he said, scratching at the back of his head with a bit of apprehension. "Need some help with that? I'm a pretty good with kitchen tools, so maybe I can chop some stuff, or something."
With a chuckle, she shook her head. "That's sweet of you to offer, but I've got it covered. I like cooking for a group. You're a guest here, and I couldn't make you do work for me."
"Are you sure?" he asked again. "It's really not any trouble. I help my mom out all the time."
Looking him up and down, she gave another laugh, moving over to allow him space at the cutting board. "If you really want to. Just keep chopping those for me." With a small grin, Kazuhiko picked up the knife and began to quickly chop up some green onion root to go with a small pile of cabbage. The ease with which he did this proved his claims.
"Ever made takoyaki before?" she asked, filling the holes on the griddle with the prepared batter now that it was up to temperature.
"Nah, the flip always seemed complicated. Afraid I'd mess up." She handed him a tentacle to begin cutting into small pieces, taking them as he finished to place into the holes and sprinkle with the vegetables and some pickled ginger.
She laughed again. "It's not too hard. Let me show you." She took a pair of chopsticks and handed them to Kazuhiko, who timidly grabbed them. "Use two, since you're a beginner. The trick is a light touch and proper timing. They should be about ready, so put both stick into the sides and turn it over on its side." With an expression of utmost seriousness, he slowly approached the barely formed food, clumsily poking beneath the excess breading frying outside the holes until he reached the hole. With one swift motion, he managed to turn it on its side just as instructed.
"Good work," she congratulated as he pumped his fist in the air. "Now, what you're going to want to do is tuck all that extra into the hole, too, so it gets nice and round when you're done." He nodded, doing as instructed and repeating it on the balls. "We just keep turning them until they get the right shape and turn a golden brown color, and they're done."
"That really wasn't that hard," Kazuhiko said while turning the forming spheres. "That's really all there is to it?"
"See? They are simple. Let them cook a little longer, then pull them out and plate them." To punctuate this, she pulled out a large plate from a cabinet above the stove, then moved to the refrigerator. "Yumi's always asking me to make these for her, so we've always got the ingredients." She placed bottles of mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce onto the counter as Kazuhiko began to pull them onto the plate with a bit of difficulty.
With the last ball set out, they'd made a perfect set of nine takoyaki balls in a three by three grid. "Good work, Kazuhiko. You were a big help." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the little kid-sounding praise, but it was still making him feel pretty good about himself. Topping them with alternating lines of the condiments and some ground nori and bonito flakes, they were ready to eat. "Would you mind carrying those into the other room for me? I'm getting some toothpicks to eat them with."
"Sure thing," he replied with a nod. Bursting into the sitting room, he stomped his foot while holding the plate above his head. "Behold, my greatest creation! My talents now extend beyond Duel Monsters into being a culinary master!" Yumi and Hideo looked up from a video playing on the phone. It was about a manga artist's process in creating his work based on the struggles with his own mental health, but that was nothing compared to the prospect of food.
"Takoyaki!" Yumi squealed, grabbing one of the smaller plates her grandmother supplied as she walked into the room with a set of three and a small jar of toothpicks. Stabbing into one of them, she moved it to her mouth, only to pause before taking a bite.
"What's wrong?" Kazuhiko asked, putting his down onto a plate. "Better not just be refusing to eat it because I helped make it. I actually tried on that and it would hurt my feelings a little."
Surprised at his blunt honesty, Yumi couldn't respond for a couple seconds. With a blink, she explained, "It's not that. I just promised there'd be plenty here for when someone else showed up, and I'm afraid she'll get mad if we end up eating all of them before that."
"That makes sense," he agreed with a sagely nod. "Then it's decided. We'll wait for your friend to show up. Right, Hideo?" Turning to the third person in the room, both of them were immediately floored as they'd already begun on a second ball while the two of them had been talking.
Before anyone could begin to protest, there was a knock on the door. The door frame, more accurately, given every shutter in the house was wide open to help the airflow through the house. "Sakuya!" Yumi screamed, racing from her seated position to the front of the house at world record pace.
"Hello, Yumi," she greeted as a pair of arms encircled around her neck.
"Ishikawa!" both of them suddenly heard from the other room. Surprisingly, he decided not to storm in this time, more content to eat his share of the food as quickly as possible as some kind of personal victory.
"I'm glad you made it," Yumi said.
Sakuya, in a move she'd been calculating since the first call this morning, decided to try returning the hug. It wasn't an unpleasant experience, surprisingly enough, though she was quickly in need of personal space again. Releasing and moving back a bit so Yumi would do the same, she walked into the house and sniffed the air. "I smell something good. Is it takoyaki?"
Yumi nodded. "Yep. You came just in time. It just finished a little bit ago." Taking her friend by the hand, Yumi led her through the kitchen where her grandmother was turning another batch in the griddle. Arriving in the sitting room, they were greeted by an obstinate Kazuhiko standing with his arms crossed and an unenthusiastic wave from Hideo as they restrained themself from taking another, less out of courtesy than for an unspoken dedication to equal distribution.
"Ishikawa, don't think the bad weather and a delicious meal can save you from my wrath! Our business isn't concluded until I get my rematch!"
"Yumi, when did your hands get this soft?" Sakuya asked, completely ignoring the boy's blustering.
"I remembered what you said about my hands being rough, so I've been using lotion for a couple weeks now so they're not as bad." A devious smile spread across her face. "Now you don't have any excuses left not to hold my hand."
Sakuya turned up her nose while holding back a blush as best she could. "I haven't even been here five minutes and you're already acting lewd. You're lucky there's food." They both tried a takoyaki ball for the first time, thoroughly satisfied with the flavor. "Fine, these are worth some hand holding."
"Kazuhiko, these are really good!" Yumi told him. This was enough to stir him from his lethargic moping after he'd given up being noticed by either of them before.
"You actually made these?" Sakuya asked in surprise.
With a sneer, he placed a hand to his chin. "Bet you didn't know I had so many talents, Ishikawa."
"Look at that, you actually did something right. Maybe you should give up Duel Monsters and try to become a chef. Seems more your speed, anyway."
He raised a fist with the intent to argue, but slowly lowered it and returned to his smugness. "I'll take that as a compliment," he said in equal parts denial and pride. After the girls had finished off the last of them, he grabbed the plate and stood back up. "I'll see if there's more ready," he announced while walking into the kitchen.
"By the way," Yumi began, "this is Hideo. They're cool and a really strong duelist. We met the other day in the card shop."
"Hello, I'm Sakuya," she greeted, curiously picking up the phone that was passed across the table for some reason. It was nothing but a compliment on her hat. "Thank you," she said, the faintest hint of a smile sneaking its way onto her lips after reading.
Hideo typed a quick message about not speaking and communicating through texts as Kazuhiko returned from the kitchen. "One more coming after this," he told the group as he set it in the middle of the table. "Oh, Miss Yumi," he said through a mouthful of octopus. "Did you have any advice on my deck?"
In truth, she'd nearly forgotten about that. "I'm not sure," she answered. "Maybe...a little more defense? You're still lacking many Magic or Trap Cards that can protect you in case your monsters leave the field." He nodded in response.
"Is that your deck?" Sakuya asked, pointing to a stack of cards off to the side. "Let me see," she said with a sigh, not waiting for a response.
"Hey!" he yelled. "That's low, even for you! I'll just remake the entire thing if you try to get an advantage by spying on my cards!"
"I don't need an advantage to beat you," she told him bluntly. "Besides, if I tell you how to improve it, then you can pretend to understand how I plan, so I'm actually giving you the advantage here."
He thought for a moment before crossing his arms. "Fine, then," he said, resigning to eat more takoyaki while he waited for her to finish looking. Yumi watched over her shoulder.
Even Hideo looked up from the food and their phone for a moment, seemingly catching a sense of Sakuya's true nature as an elite duelist. They'd put a bit of effort into helping Kazuhiko refine his deck the other day, but it was a very halfhearted attempt with a short amount of time to go on. It didn't help that they honestly forgot what they'd said, either. A fresh set of what seemed to be equally skilled eyes would be interesting, to say the least.
After reaching the end of the stack, Sakuya paused for a moment before gathering them together and handing them over to Kazuhiko. "On one hand, I agree with Yumi. You do lack substantial defenses for when something goes wrong. Using a Synchro deck, if anything happens to disrupt your summons, you've wasted resources and left yourself open without any hope of recovery.
"On the other," she continued, "I don't think you've gone aggressive enough. Your monsters have the potential to turn into something strong, but the fact remains that they're very weak to start off, and it takes several turns before anything can be accomplished. Even your Synchro Monsters rely on raw power until their effects trigger. Without a way to speed up this process, you'll be left in the dust by a faster strategy."
She nodded to emphasize her point. "Doubly so if they leave the field. That stipulation can be troublesome, especially early on when their longevity isn't assured. As it stands, your deck is unfocused and relies too much on general utility instead of a concentrated strategy. My advice is to focus on a few of those Synchro Monsters that will win you the duel and base your strategy on summoning them with the others as backup. Find a way to move your monsters effect timing forward at a faster pace and bolster your defenses to support them staying on the field."
The room was completely silent after she finished speaking. Turning up her nose, Sakuya added, "But that's just my opinion," a distinctive edge to the words as they left her mouth.
In a day full of surprises, this one hit the hardest. Kazuhiko actually found himself agreeing with the words of his self-proclaimed rival. Rubbing his chin, he took a glance at his cards before placing them back into the holder from where he'd originally taken them. He cleared his throat, preparing himself for immense pain. "Thank you...Ishikawa."
"There's no reason to thank me," she said dismissively. "If you ever do manage to eke out a win against Yumi and I have to fight you, I'd like it to be at least a bit of a challenge." He restrained himself once again. He was a guest in this house and didn't want to make a scene. Plus, he owed her for the genuinely good advice. Their quarrel was on hold for another day.
"Friendship!" Yumi declared with her arms raised and mouth full of food.
"In her dreams!" Kazuhiko protested.
"Yeah, not really. We're just not fighting today."
"(Almost as good as) friendship!" she corrected herself, whispering the beginning. The two of them decided to agree on something else in the eye roll given to Yumi. Her heart was in the right place, but they'd never be friends. Not ever.
Suddenly, a tapping came from the other side of the table. Hideo gestured for them all to come see something. A video, apparently. Flipping their phone sideways, they pressed play. Immediately, they were confused. "What's this supposed to?" Sakuya said, trying to figure out the purpose behind it. "It's just someone raking sand."
"Yeah," Kazuhiko added. "I don't get it." Hideo simply gestured for everyone to remain silent. A minute passed before the tingling took hold, phone speakers be damned.
"I still don't..." Sakuya tried to say. "It's just...raking..."
"Yeah..." Kazuhiko said once more. Yumi was entirely silent, having been sucked in shortly after it began playing. In no time at all, the four of them had been completely entranced by the magic of ASMR, staring transfixed at the screen without making a sound. Yumi's grandmother returned to get their plate for the last of the takoyaki, unsure of what to make of the gathering.
They'd surely break up after more food was put down, she thought. But even this was proven untrue. Walking around to see what it was that had hypnotized them all, she was utterly lost by whatever enjoyment was being found in raking sand and moving tiny rocks around. With a shrug, she let them go about their business, stealing a single takoyaki for herself.
Forty-five minutes passed before the video reached its end. Life returned to them as soon as it did, Kazuhiko looking around like a startled animal trying to figure out what happened. Yumi wiped some drool from her mouth as Sakuya rubbed her eyes. None of them were sure of what to make of that phenomenon, or of Hideo's disconcerting thumbs up afterwards.
"That was a thing," Sakuya concluded, definitely speaking for the three of them. It was far from unpleasant, just very unexpected and hard to explain.
"Oh, hey, more food," Kazuhiko noted after seeing Hideo snag another ball. Despite all that had happened since they'd arrived at the house, it had only been a little over an hour in total. With full stomachs and brains still trying to process that video, they all settled in for the afternoon of polite (and eventually very impassioned) conversation.
Yumi wasted no time in showing off some of the cards Kazuhiko had bought for her yesterday to Sakuya, who was still captivated by her immense luck. Hideo proceeded to explain the finer points of their newest connection theory from that morning after Kazuhiko made a comment about it offhandedly. No one really understood it, but it was amazing nonetheless.
Eventually, it was brought to everyone's attention that Sakuya was the only one of them not at least mildly covered in sweat. She had no real explanation besides being "used to" the heat, though Kazuhiko's theory of, "Fire can't harm a demon," was immediately accepted by the rest.
The rest of their time was spent playtesting against one another in less-than-serious and less-than-official duels (Kazuhiko's specific demands, of course) in between talking about nothing in particular. Most startling to Sakuya was the fact she was genuinely having fun with a group of people.
It was unusual and nearly impossible. Keeping up the lie usually meant cutting off the ability to laugh and experience joy, but these three just wouldn't let that happen. Yumi, obviously, was her only true friend, but she was meant to hate and antagonize Kazuhiko. Hideo she'd just met and barely knew. Logically, it didn't make a lot of sense. Not to her, at least.
But the longer they'd been there, the more her facade began to fall apart, the more she'd been able to be happy. And now she was forced to ponder: If she could feel like this all the time, then why keep up the lies? They were exhausting and unpleasant. Not everyone would be this agreeable upon finding out the truth, but it was seeming more and more to be worth the risk.
That was for another day, though. The sun was beginning to set after they'd finished the final duel of the day. "Guess it's about time to go home," Kazuhiko said. "You ready, Hideo?" He received a nod in response, as well as an unexpected hug from Yumi.
"I'm happy everyone came over today," she said. "We should do this again sometime."
"Yeah, sure," he replied, trying to keep a straight face with embarrassment spreading across him like the plague. Wriggling out of her grip, he walked to the entrance and grabbed his coat.
"It was nice to meet you, Hideo," Sakuya said with a smile. They gave a thumbs up in response, typing out that they'd have to test their skills against each other when she decided to be honest about her potential. "Okay, then," she replied, not entirely sure what they were talking about. "Kazuhiko, it wasn't entirely bad. Good job not being so obnoxious today."
"You, too, demon lady." With that, the two of them left, hoping to catch the train before the next circuit.
"Can I use your toilet quickly?" Sakuya asked after they were out of sight. "I'll leave right after." She was allowed, obviously, though she didn't actually need to. It was mostly so Kazuhiko and Hideo would be long gone by the time she left the house. She had a great many things to think about after today and she wanted to be alone to contemplate in silence.
She returned after a few minutes with Yumi bouncing over to see her. "I asked my grandma if it's okay and she said it was, so do you want to stay over again tonight?"
Caught off guard, Sakuya didn't have a pre-prepared response to that. "Well, I...I guess I should ask..." She paused. "Yes, I'd love to," she said definitely. "Can I borrow your pajamas again?"
"Yeah!" Yumi led her by the hand down the hall, going to retrieve the futons for them to sleep on. Her grandmother watched with a smile, more than happy to see her finally making friends. She hid it well, but it was fairly blatant that Yumi was deeply hurt by her parents' disappearance. For one reason or another, she'd never really managed to bond with any of the other kids she'd met, either, and it hurt to watch as much as it did to live it.
That seemed to be changing, though. Yumi had found people who understood her now. They were good kids, she could tell. Whatever the future held, it seemed like good fortune and happiness for her granddaughter. Sighing contentedly, she returned to watching TV.
I have to apologize immensely for the delay. There's been a lot of stuff going on in my life that prevented me from finishing the chapter at a reasonable time. Between that, work, problems with being inspired and motivated, being sick, and feeling it necessary to rewatch all of Madoka Magica, it took me way longer than expected to finish this. You'll also notice that this may not be up to par in terms of spelling and such, since I didn't edit it. I didn't want to keep this chapter from people any longer, so I posted it as soon as it was finished. I'll probably go and edit it within the next couple days, so either wait on it or give it another look after that.
To make up for the delay, chapter 6 will be out in the next couple days. We're meeting the fifth main character in that one.
If anyone wants to try and retrace Hideo's web of stuff in how all those franchises are related by virtue of the Westphall Conspiracy, my only hint is that the 2003 TMNT show is the key. I'd like to hear what you come up with.
The takoyaki is finally here, as promised.
That ASMR video they were watching actually exists and is actually my favorite. You can watch it here: watch?v=bCFALoEfBGw
As always, thanks for reading and sorry it took so long. Never ASMR while under the influence.