Fear and Loathing in Grandopolis
Author's Note: Titled after the 1998 film, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. You know how there are all these gritty reimaginings or sequels to children's media nowadays? This is a "What-If" written in that vein. What if the series got an R-rated follow-up, set long after it ended? Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS series.
Pairings: Luke x Hunt tension. Referenced Yuga x Romin, ended Luke x Romin, ended Roa x Getta.
Summary:
Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, but not how you remember it.
Chapter 1
Grandopolis: The Eternal Golden City. More golden, Goha Corporation propagandized, than the Cursed Eldland started by errant developer Otes to destroy Goha Duels' metagame.
Power creepin' Eldlich!
— Goha employees, probably.
Even for Goto Hunt, who loved money, loved everything solid gold, and who'd trade his soul for the Midas touch, it was a bit ostentatious.
You couldn't turn anywhere in Grandopolis without finding yourself in the casino. As a matter of fact, the city itself was one giant casino, built on a city-sized turtle transport carrier, and maintained by twenty-eight hundred Goha drones fulfilling thirty-five hundred tasks per second as the mech they powered slow-walked across the barren desert.
If you listened over the chinking slots and loud vice, you might be able to hear the engines of the Post-Apocalyptic Duel King and his gang, cycling death's valley in search of unlucky strays to loot.
Grandopolis was the perfect place to go if you were a sinner and not a saint. Or, in Hunt's case, the only place he could go when he lost all his savings in a bad deal, wound up in a ton of debt, and ran away to escape the corroding sharks.
He looked for safer harbour, but he'd drawn too many enemies while climbing up to the top. Those he used to know shunned him, and would jump at the chance to drown him in the gold-seated toilet he bought pawning off Ohdo Yuga's Roads.
The last time Hunt saw her, Kirishima Romin threatened to stick a dinner fork in his eye.
Hotta Kaseki, his old colleague from the Duel Dinosaur Research Club, got a restraining order after he stumbled upon Hunt squatting in his garage.
Among the unheroic pit bosses, Gamble Angel Bunnies and Harpie Ladies selling cigarettes or serving drinks, slunk the depressed Hunt, rocks below rock bottom.
He didn't want to think about what he was about to attempt, yet he needed some money to make it through the next couple of hours. To eat one meal and maybe have a bed to sleep on for the night instead of hiding in the men's washroom.
Someone noticed him.
"You're…Roa-san?"
Small world.
As Roa told it, he and Ushiro were playing a concert at the casino.
Hunt didn't dare breathe the name Taira Getta. The drummer's final falling-out with Roa had been a very public implosion. Finger-pointing (mostly towards Roa) of drug-fuelled parties and illegal misconduct at fan events.
"You're big enough, aren't you? To understand the fundamentals?"
"I'm twenty, hakutsu!" Hunt gawked disbelievingly.
"I'm sorry. I forgot. The stage lights, you know?" His eyes widened suddenly. "And the Xexex."
"You mean Xanax?"
"Sure, whatever." Roa waved at nothing. "You good with dudes? My lover-slash-drummer bailed on me, and since then, Mini Me hasn't hooked a decent replacement!"
Hunt swallowed in disgust, though Roa was so off the lyrics Hunt doubted he caught his revulsion.
"Have a room?"
"The presidential suite!"
Hunt really doubted that!
"Can I stay there tonight?"
"If you let me call you Getta-chan."
Loaning away his self-respect, Hunt agreed to the condition. The two of them grabbed the elevator, except once inside, the impatient Roa grabbed Hunt.
"N-not here! Wait until we're upstairs!" Hunt drove Roa's arms back.
"Come on! Say it angrier! How Getta-chan would!"
Out of the blue, a blue blur headbutted Roa out cold, complaining how much it hurt right after.
"Luke…san?"
Okay, really small world!
Luke crouched and rolled Roa's unconscious body past the elevator door, hopping comically off his feet to push the button for his floor. "Yosh! Are you all right, Hunt?"
"He, he was kinda my place to stay for the night, hakutsu."
"Stay in mine. I'm in the presidential suite."
The former rich kid could've countered "I've heard that before," but unlike Roa, Luke's claim wasn't hyperbole.
Take Luke's share of the inheritance from his wealthy great-grandfather and factor in Tiger being the leader of a feared syndicate in the duelling underworld that operated a Gohanium racketeering operation, and you had a family set for life!
On his way in, Luke picked up a wine bottle out of its ice bucket by the neck and drank half, shaking the half-empty bottle in front of Hunt's face as though they were habitual drinking buddies. With his other hand, Luke poured the bucket's ice over himself to clean his bloody forehead (Roa's blood, not his), sighing with a relaxed "Ahhhhhhhhh!"
"Want some?"
Hunt shook his head. "Luke-san, why are you acting like this?"
"Like what?"
"Helping me. Everybody hates me now!"
"The Devil isn't the one who does the judging, Hunt. That's between you and God. Besides, I fucking despise the Kirishimas!"
"Why?"
"Cuz Romin is a traitor!" Luke hiccupped. "She slept with Yuga!"
Not this traitor stuff again…
"So you and Roa-san are both the same? You'd both rather depend on drugs and alcohol and sex than confront your problems?"
"Excuse you, Hunt!" Luke put the bottle down. "Don't slander people! I'm not out here criticizing you for your mistakes or using you as a substitute for my ex!"
True. Luke hadn't. Hunt apologized for comparing him to Roa, then fell backwards onto the appreciated reprieve of an actual bed.
"What are you doing?" Luke asked.
"Considering where the hell it all went wrong, hakutsu."
"Can I join you?"
Hunt created a dramatic space, and Luke slid in next to him.
"I was just pulling your tail earlier. I'm no better either. We can dino-score if you like."
"No. I'm not Roa."
Out of Luke's mouth, that was surprisingly mature.
"You sure? Gonna make me say it twice? Hunting Shopping limited-time offer!" Hunt's shadow taunted Luke.
"NO!" Dragon Boy shoved the gigglesaurus. "And don't steal my line!"
"Isn't there's a reason you do that?"
Luke groaned.
"Kidnap me, Luke-san! Take me away from here!" Hunt tweaked his voice into a girl's.
"I see why everybody hates you."
"I thought the Devil doesn't judge?"
"I don't, but you're annoying me!"
They laid in silence for several minutes.
"For what it's worth, I'm not refusing because it's you."
"Is it really over between you and her?" Hunt didn't interpret Luke's confession as an invitation to get closer.
"Who knows? Maybe she'll cool down! Ha-ha! Or maybe she'll marry Yuga! What about you? Which is more important? Money or duelling?"
He'd have chosen money as was the gold standard, but materialism didn't pop anymore.
"Friends," Hunt gave his sad answer. "Friends are more important, hakutsu."