My arm continued to burn as I ran to Aki's side. Her eyes went wide as I reached out to her, "My body is a little sore, but you definitely held back. You did great."

A weak smile spread across her face as I pulled her up, "Thanks."

Chills shot up and down my spine, after a minute I realised why. I disconnected my microphone before whispering to Aki, "He's on the stairs. Do you want me to deal with him?"

She paused before nodding once. Immediately after, I silently descended down the stairs. Careful, Yusei. If he hears you coming, it'll ruin the fun.

I peeked around the corner and saw him waiting, glancing at his watch. Not one to let an advantage pass me by, I raced towards him at top speed. My right arm launched out, latching around his neck. I yanked him towards me, holding him against me. After a couple seconds, he stopped moving, and I dragged him into a nearby room and dumped him.

Stretching out my arms, I returned to the bottom of the stairs, "It's all clear! You can come down!"

As she descended the stairs, she was shaking like a leaf. I wrapped my arms around her, "Go to the garage. I have a feeling that my duel with Jack might be just as bad, so I'm going to try to get the kids out of here."

Aki nodded, and I left her side to rush to where the kids were.


My legs burned as I rushed up the stairs to the twins, "Okay, now that we have seen a duel between two Signers looks like, you might want to leave before we have a duel between two of us who have each other."

Both of the adults were on their feet in seconds, Tanner speaking for both of them, "We'll head out right now. But what about you and the Black Rose?"

"Aki needs a break from people, and I'm going to try to speak with our esteemed Director."


Finding the entrance to the tower was laughably easy with my powers. However, the guards outside would make entering a bit difficult. Well, it would, if it weren't for my years of fighting people on the street.

Here's where being a former member of a duel gang actually comes in handy.

For the second time in one day, I launched myself towards an opponent. To my humor, the one on the right just merely shouted at me as I ran towards them, "Hey! The director is not taking any visitors right-"

His protests were cut off by my fist cutting off his airway. My leg swung behind me, connecting with the other guard's stomach. Continuing with my momentum, I spun around and hit the 2nd guy's head against the wall with a loud crack. He fell to the ground with a loud thump. The first guy righted himself just to receive a second fist, this time to the skull.

As he fell to the ground, I pushed the doors open. The doors almost closed in sync with the thump of the unconscious body, nearly sending me into a giggle fit.

When I approached the room where Jack was, I heard a familiar voice, "This tournament is cursed or something. For the safety of everyone I am asking that you stop it before the damage gets worse."

Goodwin's cold voice responded, "The public would be disappointed should we stop before the finals. Now aren't you stationed elsewhere Officer Trudge?"

Carefully, I rounded the corner and saw guards starting to move my way out of the corner of my eyes, "Director, I need to speak with you."

Trudge's glare burned through my soul as he rushed towards me, but I stepped back before he managed to grab me, "Weren't you about to have him escorted out?"

Both guards looked back and forth between myself and Director Goodwin, before he waved his hand, "Guards, please help Officer Trudge back to his post."

I watched in pleasure as he was dragged out instead of me, and turned back to Goodwin, "Why did you kidnap my friends to force me to duel Jack?"

Jack stormed forward, stopping almost directly in front of me, "Because of this mark!"

He yanked off his glove, revealing the tattoo he had had since the very first time that I met him. My eyebrows raised, "What about it? The fact that the people with it are supposed to be powerful or some crap like that?"

A single short nod was his only physical response, "He wanted one of us two here to lure the other, and that's why I put Rally in that boat."

"What a wonderful reason to endanger the life of an 8-year-old. Like I need to remember when you almost drowned a little kid just to get my runner and Stardust."

I heard a gasp come from further in the room, but I didn't look to see who it was. Jack continued, "Rally got chased by thugs onto my turf, I beat them up, and then Rally felt like she owed me. So when I was given a chance to come to the city, I knew that the only way you'd give up your runner would be in exchange for your friend's life."

To my shock he turned to Goodwin, saying one thing that I wasn't grateful for, but another thing that I was, "Let her friends go, I want to duel her for real, and not because you pressured us into it."

Goodwin and the two lackeys in the room that I had just noticed all froze at Jack's sentence, and I let out an aggravated sigh, "Thank you Jack, for revealing the one thing I would have rather kept to my chest. But regardless, may the best criminal win."

He stared at me as I turned around and left, rushing back to my garage.

Closing the garage door behind me was a weight off my shoulders. I slid down and looked over at Aki, "Well, Jack just told Goodwin that I am a female. So that's no longer private information. But hopefully my friends will be let go now that I've made it all the way to the finals."

She flopped down next to me, "I'm sorry for hurting you."

"Honestly? I've had worse pain running from the cops. Did I ever tell you the story of how I met Luna and Leo?"


A/N: Thanks to TheEmoStranger, Lets-Go-To-Vermont and Cooper001 for their reviews on the original version of this chapter!

Hopefully my first attempt at actually writing out the combat turned out. Last time I didn't even write it, and I had to write this out a couple times before I was satisfied.