The story lives! Thanks for all of you who are still reading. At this stage, I am starting to wrap up the loose ends and making sure everything is consistent throughout the long story. My schedule should allow me to update every month. In fact, this chapter was finished more than 10 days ago, but I was moving houses and things were very hectic.

Anyways, please enjoy this chapter!

6 - Acheron of sorrow, black and deep

"And… Izayoi? I don't know if you noticed, but you are bleeding."

Crow's voice trembled as he withdrew his hand slowly. Carefully.

"What are you talking about?"

Still mentally wrapped up in their conversation, Aki shook her head.

"No. Seriously. I'm talking about your back, Izayoi. Like… don't you feel it…?"

Crow's voice had a significant tremor. Aki frowned and put her hand to her back.

"I don't know what you're trying to – "

The slimy mess her fingers encountered stopped her mid-sentence. A sickening feeling started to nibble away at her insides as she slowly straightened her arm and looked at her hand.

Blood. Her hand was covered in half-dried blood, mixed with ripped pieces of red fabric, forming a gooey substance that slowly slithered down her skin. As if it was a dream that she was slowly remembered, the events of the day came back to her with how Crow and Yusei had found Old Momentum, how the encounter with Rudger and Kiryu turned out, and how she fought tooth and nail with Yusei –

Aki gritted her teeth as the pain suddenly hit her all at once, her brain only now registered the wounds on her back.

Yes, Yusei had pushed her into her own vines. Those thorns had punctured her skin, giving her as much pain as they did to Yusei.

"God, Izayoi. I can't believe this…" Crow stood gingerly next to her. "How did you not realise that all this time? Is this… is this something Psychic Duelists are capable of? Ignore pain?"

"No… I… I think there was just too much that was happening…" Aki gritted her teeth and tried to move her torso. It hurt, but it didn't seem like anything serious was broken. The damage was probably mostly superficial.

"Geez. You need to take better care of yourself too." Crow frowned as he watched her trying to move. "Here. Let me help you. Let's get out of this room."

Aki gave him a look. "And where are we going?"

"To get you patched up." Crow gave her a frown. "You really can't afford to be stubborn now."

"Look, it's not hurting my ability to move –"

"Nope." Crow leaned in, grabbing her by the elbow and giving her a tug. "Stop being stubborn and sabotaging yourself. This really needs to stop when you're bleeding all over your back."

"I'm telling it's fine – ow!"

Aki bit the inside of her mouth when she twisted her body to wriggle away, only managing to create a sharp jolt of pain. Crow gave her one more disapproving look, then promptly dragged her into the corridors that led to other buildings within Martha's orphanage.

Aki heaved a sigh and gave up fighting Crow. If she could get back to her usual hideout, then she could manage to patch herself up somewhat. But she couldn't go back now, not anymore. Her break with Rudger was permanent, given how she flatly refused to kill Yusei.

Did that make her a traitor twice over? Kiryu had said that it was right for her to fight against the City, to abandon the place that she had called home. But now… with Yusei being a Psychic Duelist too… she didn't know what to think anymore.

Would she need to consider Yusei as a Psychic Duelist whom she should help? Or should she still remember everything that Yusei could have done but did not do for her?

Aki was quiet when Crow delivered her into Martha's infirmary, where the old woman and some of the older kids were busy preparing bandages and painkillers. When they went through the door, Martha raised a questioning eyebrow at Crow.

He sighed.

"Sorry, Martha. We need some patching up too. My arms and legs got pretty messed up and Jack stood on my foot." Aki couldn't help but chuckle when Crow even included Jack's mishap in his list of injuries. "And Izayoi… well, Yusei pushed her into a bed of thorns, so her back is… well…"

Martha looked Aki from head to toe, then sighed.

"Look, I don't know what I did wrong raising your kids, but I sure as hell didn't teach you to all punch each other to death."

Crow scratched his head awkwardly. "That's not it – it's not like we intentionally punched each other –"

"I know. Just give me a break, will you?" Martha, quite exasperated, sighed again. Crow immediately lowered his head, suddenly looking much younger as a result.

Martha made a frustrated face.

"Crow… I… Just, could you all please look after yourself a little more? Be aware that people out there actually care if you get yourself hurt? Cos I think every one of you is doing really, really bad on that front." Martha turned around with a tray in her hands. Various bandages, pills, and even a needle was placed on it. "I unfortunately need to run to the sickest of you all, which is Yusei. I'm leaving you two in the capable hands of my best budding medics. If it's just external wounds, they can patch you up as good as I can."

Crow nodded and started to move deeper into the room. However, as Martha made her way out of the door, Aki moved a little closer to the older woman.

"Yusei… is he going to be okay?"

Martha stopped and looked into Aki's eyes. While Aki could tell the older woman was worried about Yusei, she also knew Martha bore no friendship towards her.

"We will see, Izayoi Aki." The cold tone in Martha's voice made Aki heart flinch once again. "That's all we can do for now. Wait and see."

-\-\-\-\-\-

Martha's orphanage wasn't that big. Aki and Crow were led to the different ends of one long room, with curtains separating the area into different sections for privacy. Aki could see this was used as a makeshift infirmary. A teenage girl, not too much younger than herself, tended to the injuries on her back and wrapped Aki in layers of bandages. She then fetched some fresh clothes for Aki to wear, since her original riding suit was now riddled with holes. Aki whimsically wondered if she would ever get to fixing the red suit.

When the wounds were taken care of, Aki slowly emerged from behind the curtains, fidgeting with the edges of the baggy shirt and pants she was now wearing. The vast room was now silent and empty. Crow must have already left. Looking into the corridor, Aki could hear the laughter of children far away from here, through ancient cracks on the wooden doors.

By now, dusk was already creeping along the length of the building as the sun dipped, taking over the place inch by inch. Following its shadow, Aki crept forward as well. As she passed along the corridor, she noted that the rooms opening off it were sparsely furnished. It was like a dormitory, or an infirmary at the truer sense of the word.

"… 'm so glad you've woken up."

The words spoken a few doors down caught her attention with its familiar bass timbre. For a moment, Aki tried to remember who spoke like that – Yusei? No. Crow? Also, no – before she recalled with a jolt that it was the voice of Jack Atlas.

She moved silently towards the room and peered around the corner. Jack and Crow, both out of their riding suits and wearing casual shirts, were huddled around a bed. The two men sported various bandages on their arms, and Crow stood with his weight leant against a bedside drawer. Aki couldn't quite see the person on the bed, but Crow shifted slightly and she caught a glimpse of dark hair and wide, dark grey eyes.

Carly Nagisa.

Aki flinched back. She was initially toying with the idea of heading into the room openly to speak with the two men, but now she knew it was Carly's room, she didn't want to go in at all. She knew how Jack might react on seeing her in Carly's vicinity – and Aki still had enough of a self-preservation instinct to not provoke Jack's wrath.

"I'm sorry, Jack." Carly was saying. Her voice was faint, and Aki had to strain her ears to catch it. "Sorry for causing you so much trouble…"

"Why are you apologising, Carly?" Jack's voice, eager and earnest, instantly intercepted her. "I should be the one saying sorry. I should never have let you go off on your own. I'm an idiot. I didn't look after you in Satellite at all."

"You couldn't have known. It's not your fault." Carly said with a cough. There was the sound of some shuffling, but Aki didn't dare to check.

"Are you okay to sit up?" Jack's voice held more concern than Aki had ever thought him capable of. A Satellite thug and a brutal duelist, he was a nightmare for Security until they simply gave up, ignoring Jack's gang and allowing Jack to call himself King of Satellite. Gentle was the last thing she would associate with a figure like him.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm okay." Carly made a soft whimpering noise. "No, please, don't worry about me. It's just… I'm just so sorry for messing up the situation even further. I should have listened to you and never came here…"

"Look, we've had this guilt talk already, me and Izayoi." Crow grumbled. "You don't need to join the club."

"But I want to…" Carly sniffled. "I feel so guilty…"

Her own concern got the better of her and Aki dared peek into the room. Carly was sitting up now, and Crow and Jack were fussing over her.

What would Aki gain by showing her face now, though? Even if she didn't directly hurt Carly, she was a part of the bigger problem. As for Jack, she didn't think they ever had one civil conversation with each other, not to mention she didtry to burn him to death. She didn't think he would have a good impression of her.

"You talked with Izayoi, huh?" Jack growled. "Is that why she's creeping around the corner?"

Aki froze as she saw Jack get off his seat and turned around then moved towards her, his steps firm on the creaking floor.

Jack walked straight up to her, grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, and dragged her bodily into the room.

"Hey, Jack - " Crow started to talk, but Jack was not in the mood to listen. Aki gave a startled gasp, but the blond man didn't stop there. He proceeded to slam Aki right into the wooden walls of the room.

"Ah!"

Aki screamed. Her back felt every single crack and splinter of the aged wooden walls as her wounds throbbed in renewed pain. She squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered, not even daring to move off the wall after Jack let her go. She barely heard Crow's startled yell.

"Jack! What the hell are you doing! Izayoi is hurt!"

"Damn right she is hurt! I know that!" Jack growled. Aki winced and tried to slowly, carefully move away, and barely found enough willpower to stand on her two feet.

Carly was glaring at Jack, much to Aki's surprise. The reporter was paler than Aki remembered, and looking a lot more mature without her ridiculous glasses. It still didn't change how sick she looked, though.

"Jack! That was horrible!"

"You expected me to treat her nicely?" Jack didn't even look at Aki as he walked back to his seat next to the bed. Crow was eying his friend warily. "She is the cause of all this, and she got you hurt, Carly!"

Aki hissed in pain and stole a look at Carly and they accidentally locked eyes. Unsurprisingly, the black-haired young woman immediately turned her head away.

"I understand that you don't want to talk to me, Carly Nagisa." Aki spoke in a low voice. "And I understand why Jack is angry. It makes sense to think I was the one who triggered everything. I was the one who accidentally got Rudger out of his cell and started his rampage. And for that… I'm sorry."

"Oh, for God's sake…" Crow started in exasperation, and Aki was sure he was going to say something along the lines of 'please stop feeling sorry'. And yet, to her surprise, Carly interrupted him.

"This isn't your fault, Izayoi-san. In fact, I should be the one apologising to you."

Jack frowned, looking from one young woman to another. "Why are you apologising to her?"

Carly lowered her head.

"It was my reporting that publicised everything." Aki could hear Carly's voice tremble. "If I hadn't put so much effort into spreading news about Izayoi's case, then it may not have come to this. Sometimes… sometimes I wonder if that would have made a difference. And if I didn't duel today, if I didn't show myself as a Psychic Duelist…"

"That's enough, Carly." Crow stepped in. "Seriously, can we just all stop? You saved us today, Carly. If it weren't for you, all of us would have been crushed by Rudger. It was your power that made him retreat."

"But… but I still brought so much extra trouble to you!" As if determined to show that she was somehow guilty, Carly didn't let it go.

"It's no trouble." Seeing Crow's exasperated face, Aki answered instead. "We would have ended up here no matter what. Knowing me, Rudger, Yusei… it was inevitable. It is… not your fault, Carly."

And with that, Carly started to sniffle. Startled, Jack rushed up to her and got her to lay down again, murmuring assurances as Carly started to sob quietly, her face buried in her hands. With another wince, Aki slowly stood up straight. After giving one last look at Jack and Carly, she sighed, and turned to face Crow.

"You are right, Crow. We do make a sorry group of guilty people."

"Tell me about it." Crow shook his head.

Aki smiled, but felt little mirth.

"We can't hide at Martha's House forever. We need to start moving. Rather, I need to start moving. Any suggestions?"

Crow gave her another incredulous look. Did she say something wrong? More than anyone else in the group, she was the person who could bring trouble here in a heartbeat.

"Izayoi. I think you need to slow down. You need to see Yusei."

"Yes. I remember you saying that." Aki rolled her eyes. "But I need to have a plan. I need to act as soon as I've seen Yusei."

"No. I meant you need to decide together with him what we should do."

"…What?"

The annoyance on her face must have been evident. Crow shook his head.

"You need to work together with Yusei." Even though he was clearly uncomfortable, Crow was adamant. "You know a lot more about the situation than he does, and he needs to show you what he had discovered in the City. You guys should exchange information."

"I don't think he can tell me anything I don't already know." Aki shook her head. "Rudger told me everything already. Yusei can't possibly know more."

"Even so, there are otherthings you guys should talk about, stuff that's apart from Momentum and Psychic Duelists." Crow sighed. "Like, how have you both been in the last few months, after your trial?"

"That…"

That would be too much, she wanted to say. Too personal and infused with too much pain. She didn't want to share such memories with other people. They won't understand, or worse, won't care.

As if reading her mind, Crow blinked continued. "Actually, that's probably the reason why he even came here."

"Nonsense." Aki gave out a stubborn chuckle. "He originally came here to save me, to take me back, not to see how I was doing…"

"And now?" Crow raised an eyebrow. "You think Yusei was going to be completely unaffected by what happened today?"

Aki shook her head and closed her eyes.

"I can't believe I'm the one giving this speech, but listen," she heard Crow make an exasperated sigh, "just go talk to him. See how he's doing. Talk through all the mess that happened today, okay?"

"Alright." She relented with a groan and glared towards the orange-haired young man. "You're sounding like a real mother hen, you know?"

"I think I finally get what Martha feels half the time." Crow made an equally unhappy sound. "Honestly, I can't be the only one with a proper head on my shoulders."

"That's probably because Yusei has been out of it." Aki pointed out. "That role is usually reserved for him."

Crow rolled his eyes. "Why don't you hurry up and see how he's doing then."

-/-/-/-/-/-

Yusei's room was two doors down the hall. Aki carefully stole that way, tiptoeing towards the door. When she finally reached it, the door was not open but closed fast.

Aki reached out towards the door handle but stopped short of touching it. Was Yusei awake? Would there be anyone else in the room? What would she do if he was still unconscious? Or worse, if he was angry? Or dismissive?

For a moment, Aki felt like she was a helpless young girl in Tops again, living forever in fear of others' judgement.

No. That was in the past. Reaching out, she grasped the door handle, and pulled the door open with as steady a hand as she could.

Yusei laid silent and still in the bed, his face turned away from the door and facing the dusty window. From her direction, it was impossible to tell whether he was awake. The uncertainty gave Aki pause and she slowly closed the door, careful not to make noise, leaving sweaty fingerprints on the door handle when she let it go.

"Aki…?"

She gasped as he made a low mumble and turned his head to the door. While he was certainly awake, he appeared much weaker than Carly. He was still laying down, not sitting up, and his voice held a hint of deep exhaustion that she had only ever heard from him before after a straight week of competitive duels.

"You could tell it was me…?" Instead of addressing him properly, she evasion the question tactfully.

No, perhaps it wasn't tact. It was fear yet again. She was afraid of… what he might think.

"I didn't know it was you." His answer was a lot more honest than she had anticipated. It wasn't even confident, like how he usually talked. It was tentative, almost vacant. "But I thought… you might have the most reasons to see me."

She took a deep breath and look at him in the eyes. Martha had wiped away most of the grime and blood on Yusei face, but he had lost an unhealthy amount of blood. His tanned skin looked abnormally pallid, and his eyelids were still trembling a little in fatigue. It felt like she was looking at a shadow of Fudo Yusei, a Fudo Yusei who had all of his usual energy sucked out of him, a man who looked nothing like the epitome of the competitive dueling world.

"Funny that you would think so." She cracked a joke, humourless in its bitterness. "In fact, Crow more or less forced me to come see you. If it were up to me, I would have just left."

He frowned a little, his angular features twisting with confusion. "Why?"

"What is there for us to talk about?"

"I – that's… not what I meant." He stuttered – another oddity that she didn't remember him having. "I just thought… why didn't you kill me?"

His voice was laced with genuinely puzzlement as he looked at her – looking at her almost imploringly, as if he somehow wanted to die, wanted her to commit to her previous resolution.

"Yusei… You - !"

She hated the look on his face. That weak, confused, submissive look should never appear on the face of someone like him. Fudo Yusei should not be asking anyone to defeat him, let alone kill him. What was wrong was him? Wasn't he supposed to be strong beyond measure? Wasn't he meant to be the brilliant shooting star of hope who lit up the entire world?! Wasn't he meant to always triumph over monsters like her?"

"Are you even listening to yourself, Yusei?!"

She took two steps forward and reached towards the bed, grasping the edge of the wooden frame so tight that her knuckles turned white from the pressure.

"You are asking to die! Do you realise how pathetic that is?! You are asking to die when there are people struggling in Satellite, people who are fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive!"

She expected him to yell back at her, or even to stand his ground and persist with his imbecile request. But instead, he turned his head away from her, and all but flopped back down onto the flimsy mattress and sunk his head into the pillow.

"…What's wrong with you, Yusei?"

Her tone was infused with ice and scorn, the kind that she knew he detested the most on the duel field.

"…Wasn't it you who stated I represent for all the wrongs that Momentum had done?"

His voice was muffled by the pillow.

"My life is a massive lie, Aki. my name is a lie. I'm the odd one out. You and Crow and Jack and Carly all are fighting for something you believe in, and it doesn't matter whether it was right or not. I - everything that I was fighting for…"

His voice dwindled away. She frowned.

"Really? And I expected Fudou Yusei to be a fighter for the City until his last breath, not a coward begging to be put out of his misery."

"Aki…" He turned back to face her. While he had suffered physically, she knew the true wound wasn't on his body – it was deeper and more invisible still.

A part of her cackled. There we go. That's the perfect vengeance. That's exactly what Rudger-san would love to see.

Another part of her, the collected half, replied, Yeah, he's wounded, exactly likely how you were wounded when you arrived at Rosewood.

Yusei shook his head. "Don't think of me like that, Aki. I was the coward this whole time. I was hiding behind the glory of Momentum, being secure in my little bubble. I don't want to admit it, but this – to know that my hometown consisted of an elaborate lie… I just don't know anymore."

Aki merely looked at Yusei, showing no expressions on her face.

"You are feeling exactly what I felt three months ago, Yusei." Aki muttered. "I should probably feel sorry for you, but I don't. You finally realised what it is like to be abandoned, forgotten, unwanted - everything that Psychic Duelists and Satellite had experienced."

"Do you feel… vindicated?" Yusei asked while biting his lower lip.

"No…" Aki shook her head and tore her eyes away. He was looking entirely too vulnerable – weak enough that she couldn't consider him a rival.

"Look, Yusei, I was a coward too." She wanted to say something, anything, to break the awkward silence. "For years, I allowed the City to do whatever it wanted with me, and I was too afraid to fight back until I got to where I am right now. And looking at you… I don't know what to feel. Not happy, not sad, just… just relieved that we're finally, finally on the same page."

Yusei glanced back up at her. "I don't know, Aki… Are we on the same page? There are still a lot of things that I don't know. What exactly happened to you? What was really going on in Rosewood? What happened sixteen years ago with Momentum? You may know these things, but I am still in the dark."

Aki furrowed her brows. She could see that he was depressed, but he was far from being petrified. He was still thinking about what he could do, and what else he needed to know to stay ahead.

He did not let the world swallow him. Despite what he said, he was still fighting.

Would she choose to aid him, to give him an enabling hand? Or would she let him go, laughing all the more as he floundered in his own distress?

Moving back to the bed, Aki pulled up a chair and sat down next to Yusei.

"If that's what you want, Yusei, then do you have time to listen to everything?"

"Everything?" Instead of apprehension, his face was open with wonder.

It was an expression that had not appeared on his face since he became a hardened warrior on the duel field.

"Yes, everything. It's about time we finally caught up. You can tell me your discoveries that led you to the supposedly untraceable Rosewood, and we can call it even." Aki sat down and leaned forward. "At this stage, I think we both deserve to know it all."

-/-/-/-/-/-

And she did tell him everything. Everything that happened to her, and everything she did to others.

He listened to her story in silence, without agreement or disapproval. His face, usually stirred into empathy or pride in his role as the kind King, was completely neutral. His eyes fixated on her, giving her words his full attention. There was no judgment, no feedback, just him listening, letting her state her version of events.

It didn't used to be like this. He always had a tight schedule. There were notifications and reminders on his phone, people waiting to talk to him, and Mikage making sure he was on time. To have him free like this, devoting all his time on her, was honestly surreal.

His impassive countenance made it easier for her to forget his presence in the room. She recounted her days in Satellite as the sunlight dipped lower and lower. She spoke of how she was secretly transported out of the City and deposited in Rosewood, how she was befriended by Crow and Kiryu, how she looked after Divine until she was forced to take his place, and how she rendered the entire place to waste through her flames.

Crow had probably told Yusei parts of this story already, but Yusei didn't interject. The only sign of life he gave out was an infrequent sigh that disturbed the dust in the air, which then settled back into their timeless pattern as if they had never been perturbed.

And then she moved on to the more uncomfortable section, the part where she joined Kiryu and Rudger. Rudger was the one who fanned the flames of revenge that she knew she harboured inside. He promised her power and liberation - oh, such sweet powers Rudger had shown her. He was a font of knowledge, telling her about the capacity to summon monsters without Duel Disks, the relationship between Momentum and the realm of Duel Monsters, and the lies Rex Goodwin had woven over the years. He and Kiryu tempered with normal Duel Disks and took over Old Momentum to provide the Black Duel Disks with 'reverse flow', an energy that allowed Duel Monsters to materialise when summoned via Black Duel Disks. Kiryu them returned to the displeased masses of Satellite and preached a new future to them, arming them into a legion of pseudo-Psychic Duelists, a force that terrified Security officers far and wide.

But Rudger wanted more than just Satellite. He did not forget the glory that Rex Goodwin denied him. He had informed Aki, in no uncertain terms, the significance of her "birthmark". It was a sign of powerful Psychic Duelists, ones which could either become their powerful allies or enemies. Many years ago, Rudger got word of a boy in Martha's House who had a birthmark like that, who was later confirmed to be Jack Atlas. Rumours also whispered that little Rua was a h likely candidate as well, despite her having not having shown herself in formal duels for many years. These new information, together with Aki's desire for revenge on Yusei, led to the planning of an operation that would see Rudger's group capture multiple important targets at once.

Rudger also felt the need for more people in his inner circle, who could help him control the masses in Satellite. Crow was personally sought out by Aki and Kiryu. The orange-haired man was understandably against the idea, but following persuasion – and blackmail – he became a reluctant convert. Yusei fidgeted at this revelation and Aki internally told herself to look away, to ignore Yusei's reaction.

This multi-faceted plan eventually led to the day that Aki set out herself to face Jack, either talk him into joining to bring him back by force. Little did she realise that Crow had warned Jack in advance and the King of Satellite had fled. Furious, she gave chase, setting fire to the air inside the tunnels. However, being the stubborn fool Jack was, he never turned back and ended up reaching the City, where Yusei and Carly found him.

At the same night, Kiryu and Crow were sent into the City. Coming across a D-Wheel that looked suspiciously like Yusei's, Kiryu immediately chased it and set it ablaze, reporting back to Aki, only for the two of them to realise that man was not Yusei. Kiryu and Crow then stayed in the City, looking for an opportunity to ambush Rua. When that task also failed and Crow went to Yusei's side, Kiryu was recalled to Satellite.

Here Aki paused, trying to let Yusei know that the rest of the story should already be known to him. He narrowed his blue eyes, the previous uncertainty seemed to evaporate out of him as he sat up, looking at her with a thoughtful expression.

"What Rudger said about Momentum and Psychic Duelists were true, then?"

"It is." Aki agreed. "Momentum relies on utilising the brain waves of Psychic Duelists to function at a controllable level. I don't know exactly how it works, but Momentum absolutely needs Psychic Duelists."

"Then, was Satellite used to –?" Yusei bit his lower lip. Aki, however, believed she knew what he was going to ask.

"Satellite was where Rex Goodwin housed a lot of Psychic Duelists and built facilities to keep Momentum stable." She saw him nod and knew she hit the mark. "Rudger… and I… attacked the majority of these places and took them offline, freeing the Psychic Duelists in them. As a result, Momentum is currently in a very dangerous situation. Most of its 'fuel' would have been depleted by now. Left unchecked, it would go out of control and explode in the same way Old Momentum once did. The only way to prevent it would be to shut it down completely."

"That would effectively cut off all of the electricity in Neo Domino City. Not only would it cause chaos for the inhabitants, essential services such as sewage treatment and data security would also be shut down. The City would be completely defenseless." Yusei analysed in a soft voice. Aki watched him with curiosity. Even though Yusei was describing a catastrophe for the City, he was not as angry as she anticipated. Rather, it was like watching him talking about a place unrelated to him, instead of a place he was supposed to care.

"Yes. That was meant to be the first step of the grand plan for revenge, before Rudger leads the charge of duelists with Black Duel Disks into the City and takes control by force." Aki nodded, keeping her voice carefully even.

Yusei raised his head and gave her an unperturbed look. Aki held her breath, waiting for him to make an accusation of some kind. She had told him everything, confirmed that she had indeed harmed – even killed – innocents in her pursuit for revenge. That she had gotten him hurt, had plotted against his beliefs, and was ready to make herself his enemy – Was he simply going to say nothing to any of that?

The only sound he made was an exhausted sigh. He lifted his hand and placed it over his eyes.

"Is this how you felt when you first discovered all this?" He mumbled, and for some reason, Aki was afraid to answer. His voice seemed so brittle and fragile, as if as soon as she reached out to him, he would shatter and impale his broken fragments into Aki's hand.

Yeah. She thought to herself. That was exactly how I felt. And I shattered, too. Just look at how badly I got put back together.

"I should probably be angry." Yusei whispered. "I should probably feel a lot of things, but right now… I feel nothing. I feel numb."

"Precisely what I felt." Aki found it in herself to answer, her voice dry and rattling. "And I don't know if that numbness ever left."

Yusei stilled, then lifted his hand off his face. "Aki… You mentioned you maintained communications with Kiryu and Crow while they were in the City. Does your D-Wheel have a secret communication line into the City?"

Aki nodded slowly. "Yes, it does… who do you want to call at this stage, though?"

"The one person who had been at the core of the entire puzzle, and yet no one had mentioned no matter what…" Yusei's voice dipped, his usually gentle tone now sibilant, "… my father."