I don't wanna hear anyone complain about how it took so long to update this. XD Between writing my requests fics and between grade eleven, you're lucky it only took this long to update.
This fic was written by a challenge issued on a LJ community from JennyRogue.
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. And I've never actually been to New York, so any one who has, can you correct any misinformation I may have used?
Che. Chapter five and Jonouchi still hasn't met up with Pegasus yet...
It took Jonouchi and Shizuka nearly an hour to get a hotel room, and they could only get it with Shizuka's broken English, one of the other guest's broken Japanese (turns out they had been in town for an anime convention. Jonouchi was quite shocked to find out they even had anime in America), and Jonouchi's stick-man drawings.
"Geez," Jonouchi complained, throwing himself on one of the beds. "Why don't they have a translator?"
Shizuka sat on the other bed and began to unpack her stuff. "Because usually tourists at least know how to say 'I want a hotel room' or 'I have a hotel room reserved'."
Jonouchi stretched. "Listen, how about you get some sleep? I'll go for a run. See if I can rent a motorcycle or something."
"How do you plan to do that if you can't speak or read English?" Shizuka asked, laying on the bed.
Jonouchi shrugged, telling himself he'd figure it out when he got there.
---
He found he rental place in no time. One of the few words he recognized in English was 'car' and he vaguely recalled Honda telling him and spelling out 'car rental' before he left, so he recognized it.
He half wished Honda was with him now, because Honda paid attention in school, and got fairly good English marks.
Or Anzu, who had been teaching herself English for when she came to New York for school.
Or even Yugi, who had managed to pull off a B last term.
But now he had to depend on his little sister. The same little sister who he had promised himself that she would always be able to depend on him. Her, and some stranger who Jonouchi trusted about as far as he could throw him.
Jonouchi's fingers brushed against the paper with the man's number on it. Realizing what he was doing, he shook his head and went into the dealership.
It wasn't busy. Jonouchi couldn't see another costumer, and he was spotted immediately by the worker, who came up and said something. He was smiling the smile of a man who hated his job, and Jonouchi guessed he had said something along the lines of 'can I help you?'
"I would like a motorcycle," Jonouchi said, and the man's face twisted as though he were in pain.
Jonouchi tried again, this time miming riding a bike and cutting his request down to "Motorcycle".
The man said something angrily, and motioned for Jonouchi to go away.
"Phone! Phone!" Jonouchi said, and mimed a phone.
The man siged, and lead him into the shop. He said something, and when Jonouchi didn't answer, he said it again louder and slower, as if that would get Jonouchi to understand. Finally, he gave up and gave the cradle of the phone to Jonouchi.
Jonouchi pulled Sakurai's number out of his pocket, and stared at it. The man said something impatiently, and Jonouchi punched in the numbers.
A friendly sounding woman answered the line, and Jonouchi said "Sakurai Akira," hoping that she understood.
Luckily, it seemed she did because a males voice came on the line.
"Sakurai-san?" Jonouchi asked, unsure.
"Who is this?" Sakurai asked in Japanese.
"It's Jonouchi. Jonouchi Katsuya. I uh... need your help," he muttered quietly.
"Huh? The guy from the airport?"
Jonouchi nodded a little. "Yeah, that's me."
Sakurai suddenly burst out laughing. Jonouchi got more ashamed for calling, and then grew extremely angry.
"What's so funny?!" Jonouchi demanded, and his laughter died away.
"I'm sorry. I just wasn't expecting you to actually call me. I thought you'd be too stubborn and stupid to call," Sakurai explained.
Jonouchi stopped himself from hanging up, and didn't respond to the comment. "Well, I called."
"Yes, you did. What do you need help with, Jonouchi-kun?" Sakurai asked.
"I'm trying to rent a motorcycle," Jonouchi said sheepishly.
There was a pause at the other end of the phone, and then he sighed. "Give the phone to the man. I'll try my best to help you."
Jonouchi did as he told.
It took nearly two hours for Jonouchi to fill in the form, Sakurai telling him what each of the fields meant, and how to spell what he needed to put in, and he was thankful that he had just gotten a credit card the week before he left.
The worker motioned for him to hand over the phone, and Jonouchi did so. He said something, and handed the phone back to Jonouchi.
"He told me to tell you that it'll be $60 a day. Is that okay with you?"
Jonouchi was silent.
"You do know how much that is, don't you?" Sakurai asked.
Jonouchi laughed nervously.
"It's," there was a short pause while Sakurai calculated it, "6,603 yen."
"Oh. Yeah, that's fine."
"And Jonouchi-kun?"
"Yes?"
"You are going to get screwed in this city."
---
Shizuka seemed rather impressed that Jonouchi had managed to get the motorcycle, especially since he carefully omitted getting any help what-so-ever.
Jonouchi smiled, and laid down, and Shizuka fell asleep nearly immediately.
He couldn't though. He was too excited, too anxious, too worried. Tomorrow, his baby sister would go to the hospital.
Tomorrow, it would be their first real day in the city of New York.
Con crit more than welcome. Flames will be mocked.
–REVIEW REPLIES–
CHAPTER THREE REVIEWS:
Kumori Sakusha formerly Saelbu: Thank you.
Misura: Actually, I had meant for Honda to say "hot". I'm glad that you liked the mother's interaction though. I had been trying to get that across.
Princess of Mirrors: I'm glad you think so. Not about the Pegasus thing though, because I never, personally, thought he looked fat. Ah, but Pegasus can speak Japanese as well, can he not?
SchizoAuthoress: XD Thanks for the entertaining review. I hope I continued soon enough for you.
CHAPTER FOUR REVIEWS:
Kumori Sakusha formerly Saelbu: I hope I didn't make you wait too long.
The Chaotic Ones: You know, I probably should. But that would take all the fun out of it.
falsechaos: I'm glad you think so. It did take me a while to figure out how to not only get him to America, but to get him to a place where he would run into Pegasus. I'm half wishing that I had thought to take the easy way out, but that's the easy way and this is a 'challenge'. Not to mention I do like it better this way. I'm glad you do, too.
Schiz: Of course he was angry. Jonouchi doesn't like to feel helpless. He's such a manly-man. I bet he's the type of guy who doesn't ask for directions, even when he's in desperate need of them.
Misura: Of course you'll see more of Sakurai-san. He's like, their translator. I was tempted to make his helpfulness just be an act, but then I realized that I'd have no where to go after that. Rather, I've given him a different role in the fic (hopefully one you'll see next chapter). It makes for very tough writing, but it's also rather fun.