Being used to constantly moving was the hardest part of adjusting to city life. My current project was working the best, but fixing things will only help with so much stir-craziness.
"Fudo-sama, I'm here to pick up Reika-san's computer."
The sudden voice nearly gave me a heart attack, and I spun around to see Marco, a young man who ran a delivery company using a rickshaw.
Calming myself down, I hopped to my feet, "You startled me. It's right over here."
He sharply bowed to me, "I'm so sorry."
"I was just deep in thought, there's no reason to apologize."
Together, we loaded the computer onto the rickshaw, and I did my best to help with securing it without getting in the way.
Once it was tied down tightly, I stepped back, "Be careful, okay?"
He gave another bow before picking up the handles, "Of course!"
As he left, Crow came down the stairs, "Morning! Where is everyone?"
"Dad went to go meet up with some of the other scientists who worked with him across town, and Jack's at the coffee shop across the street again."
That caught his attention, "Who is paying for his coffee?"
I paused, rubbing my temples, "I don't want to know. Dad refuses to buy his coffee anymore."
Crow marched out the door, and pretty soon I heard yelling in the distance.
After about a minute, Crow stormed in, kicking a random piece of metal across the room, "I better head to work and get some money coming in. That stupid drink of his was 3000 yen."
My mind was in a stupor from the price of a single drink of coffee as Crow tore out of the garage on his runner. I was trying to recenter myself when the door slowly opened an a young woman poked her head inside, "Fudo-san?"
Stretching out, I smiled at her, "Carly, I told you that you can call me Yusei. You don't need to be so formal."
While she closed the door, she looked over her shoulder to the coffee shop where Jack was, "Do the two of them yell at each other often?"
Picking up another appliance that needed repair, I sat down, "Yeah, they do. Crow is a proud street rat, while Jack is obsessed with being rich and famous. It's just a natural thing that happens when we are together for too long. Apparently I'm the judge, because whenever I side with one of them, the argument normally stops."
"Really? It's hard to imagine Jack backing down."
I laughed, "He won't admit that he backs down, but if I side with Crow, he stops picking that fight. The one argument he won't back down is about his stupid coffee. Even Dad can't get him to stop."
She sat down next to me, "I mostly came over here to talk to Jack, but that waitress and officer are talking to him, so I decided to come over to talk to you, and give you my number in case he does anything else stupid."
"If I called everytime he did something stupid, you would be getting constant calls."
My hand rested on her shoulder, "And Carly, don't give up. You already have his heart. It's just that he can't recognize flirting if it hit him in the face."
Her entire face went red as I took the phone number from her, "You promise?"
"100%. They weren't the ones that he risked his life for. That was you."
"Where's Jack?"
For the second time that day, I jumped nearly out of my skin at the sudden interruption. Dad was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at where I was working and where Crow was writing down his deliveries for the day.
Crow dismissed Dad's concerns with a wave of a hand, "I told him that he has to stop being a freeloader. He's been looking for jobs all day."
Dad's concern was overwhelming, "Well, everything is closed by now."
I got up, grabbed Crow's arm, and started moving towards our runners, "Don't worry, Dad. We'll go find him and make sure he's okay."
He went back into the apartment, and I pulled out a piece of paper from my jacket, "Thank goodness she gave this to me. I hope she knows where he is."
Within two rings, she picked up, "Hello?"
"Carly, this is Yusei. Do you know where Jack is?"
There was a brief pause before her response, "Yes? We are currently in downtown Old Satellite, near where the old fountain was until a few months ago. Just look for his runner."
Quietly, I took a deep breath, "Thanks, Carly."
Hanging up, I turned to Crow, "I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but she sounded slightly stressed when I was talking to her. We better hurry."
Carly's directions were spot on, but we definitely had our job made easier for us by spotting Jack's high speed ferris wheel. We pulled up next to it, only to find Carly standing next to Marco of all people.
I opened my mouth, and then I caught a glance of Jack standing in front of a group of men who were all giving me the chills, Did he run into the Yakuza? What's going on here?
"Jack? What in the frick are you doing this time?"
His eyes darted to us, and he smiled, "Just reliving our teenage dream."
Yup. He found the Yakuza, and now he's going to fight them. Oh, great.
The fat guy flexed his hands, "Alright, if you win, you get the contracts. If I win, I get Red Dragon Archfiend and your Wheel of Fortune."
Crow lunged forward, only getting stopped by a combined effort from myself and Marco, "Are you nuts? We need both of those for the WRGP!"
Jack didn't even look over at us when he called out, "Shut up, Crow."
I pulled Crow back, and turned to Carly, "Could I get a TLDR about what's going on here?"
She wrung her hands together, "That man, Garome, runs a loan business, and all of his clients are former Satellites. No matter how hard they work, strange things keep happening so they can't pay off their loan all the way. If they can't pay off the loan, he takes their things. Jack and I found them bothering Marco, so he went after them."
Marco looked very uncomfortable at the conversation, and more so when I tried to make eye contact, "Marco, did they hurt you at all?"
"No, Fudo-sama. Thank you for your concern."
Sometimes having powers meant that you were more accurate than a polygraph test. I tilted his head up a bit, "Marco, you don't have to lie to us. The three of us like beating up people like him, laws be screwed."
Crow tapped me on the shoulder, "Hey, Yusei? He's taking a page out of your book."
"Huh?" I twisted around to see what was going on, only to see one of the most confusing dueling setups I had ever seen. On Jack's side there was a card that I didn't recognize and a bunch of what I could only assume were tokens of some kind.
I had only gotten a few seconds to figure out what was going on before Jack spoke up, "I activate my trap card Zero Hole, which destroys everything on the field if I have no cards in my hand."
A black hole appeared in the middle of the field, sucking in every single thing on the field, while a smile erupted onto my face, "He can do more than batter an opponent into submission. I'm pleased."
"When Smile Kid is sent to the graveyard, I can special summon Smile Angel from my deck."
My head snapped to look at Carly, "Please get a picture of that card in front of him. I need it for sister reasons."
Never in my life would I have ever thought that my brother would summon a pink haired angel in a duel. And apparently neither had Crow, who was violently coughing into his fist, doubled over and running out of breath.
Jack's voice rang out so loud there was a mild echo, "Smile Angel, direct attack!"
Carly's camera clicked right as the flood of pink hearts came from the angel's wings, slicing into the Yakuza boss. My self control nearly broke at that point, because my brain couldn't handle my brother who didn't even know what lipstick was using an extremely cute card.
Marco shifted uncomfortably, and I smiled at him, "We aren't laughing at the card. We are laughing at the fact that Jack prides himself in being super masculine, even abandoning old clothes that accidentally turned pink. To see him using this card is a dream come true for us."
The fat guy, Garome, fell on his butt while trying to back away from the attack, which caused his minions to turn and run for their lives. One of them was carrying a giant bag against his chest, which was slowing him down compared to his buddies.
Jack flung one of his cards towards the one with the bag, which sliced across the back of his hand. He immediately dropped the bag, while continuing his escape from Jack. Garome scrambled off after them as fast as he could.
Carly darted forward before the rest of us could react, doing her best to try and pick the bag up. She hadn't made any progress by the time Jack made it over to her, and easily picked it up with one hand, sending a smirk her way, which turned her face a brilliant shade of red.
Together, they walked over to where the rest of us were waiting, and Jack held out a deck towards Marco, "Here's your cards back. Do you want to come with us back to our place, or do you want to head home to check on your mom?"
"I'd prefer to head home. But about the contracts."
Jack opened up the bag, while Carly shined a light in so he could find the contract in question. He pulled it out, glancing up at me, "Do you have a lighter?"
"Not quite, but I can get it on fire."
I went back to Justice, and pulled out my emergency kit. From it, I grabbed my flint and a small knife before returning to the group. I scraped my knife against the flint a couple times, getting a few sparks to land on the paper.
The contract went up in flames, and we slowly added the rest after writing down the names so we could inform them of their new freedom.
A/N: Thanks to Let's-Go-To-Vermont and an anonymous Guest for reviewing on the original version of this chapter!
