Chapter 3: the aftershock emissary
If Yuri would have punched him any harder, he wouldn't be standing anymore.
The man was now bend over with his hands clinging to his stomach and a quite sound of pain escaping his mouth.
"I swear. I don't know anything" he said in a huffing voice.
"Yes, I remember you saying that and I wouldn't expect someone like you to know a whole lot anyway.", he said in his usual sarcastic voice, but he could not keep a hint of anger from slipping in.
Yuri took a step back from the man and put his hands behind his back. He started walking a circle around him. Like a predator sizing up his pray, looking for the time to strike.
Moments before, Starving Venom Fusion Dragon had wiped out the man's life points in a single devastating attack, crushing all defenses in its way. Yuri had found the person's name during his investigation. He is a worker at the docks and a source for illegally getting high-tech equipment undetected.
Yuri had been stealthily following him all night. Using skills that were all too familiar and when the perfect moment came, he attacked.
"Now our duel was really fun, but I don't have all night so what's it going to be?" Yuri smiled at him dangerously.
The man looked at Yuri with blank fear in his eyes, Yuri tried not to enjoy it.
"ok, I will tell you." He whimpered.
Yuri stopped and looked directly at him. Then, without warning, he dashed forward and forcefully grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt.
"Then why don't you illuminate me?" He hissed.
"Ok…ok" he said quickly, "Ten years ago, I worked at den city docks. I never met them. I swear. They hacked into my computer and told me to get them gear you need for electrocutions. I never ask any questions. They paid well."
For a moment there was blind rage and absolute madness in Yuri's eyes. His hand instinctively went to the place on his dual disk were the button for turning people into cards used to be, but he could stop himself and put his hands back firmly around the man's collar.
He took a deep breath, that wasn't him anymore.
"We had such great fun together, didn't we? Wouldn't want to ruin it by telling anyone about it, right?" Yuri looked into the man's eyes questioningly. He nodded quickly.
Then Yuri punched him again to satisfy that wild anger at least a little bit. The person fell to the ground.
Yuri turned around and as he heard noises of pain coming from behind him, he started to slowly walk away, his hands once again behind his back.
Yuri let out a sigh of frustration, as he tried to find the right key from his key chain in the dark. He was standing in front of the small storage room he had rented. He just couldn't see anything in the dark and absentmindedly trying to find the key gave his mind time to wander and that was something he always tried to avoid.
This is actually the third storage room he used over the years.
He had rented the first shortly after Serena became disillusioned with looking for answers about 8 years ago. She made him promise to stop and he swore it to her, but he just couldn't. So, he took everything his investigation had brought and moved it there.
She, of course, found out and they had a fight, not unlike the one they had yesterday. At the time he couldn't understand why she had given up or maybe he just didn't understand what drove him to keep going without looking back.
She screamed at Yuri that he needed to be there for them and not outside chasing shadows on the wall.
She was right of course. She was right most of the time. Maybe if he would have seen it back then things could have gone differently.
A shiver went down Yuri's spine. He closed his eyes and stopped his search for a moment.
He took a deep breath. He would make it all up to them both. He would make the people who did this pay and then make it all up to them somehow.
He focused again and finally found the correct key. He opened the door to the tiny space of his lair.
He switched on the light, closed the door and immediately went to water the plant on the small table.
He chose it specifically. It did not need much water and the small artificial light next to it was enough to keep it healthy. They never failed to amaze him, to keep living despite all circumstances and still be so beautiful. Serena would often make fun of him for it, but for him a room, even if it was his small hideout, wasn't complete without one.
He thought about Serena for a moment. He knew he would go back eventually and apologize to her. The perfect flower for it was already planned out.
He felt terrible for what he said to her. There was a time when he couldn't understand her, but now he did. He knew she thought they would never find anything and maybe she was right.
But he had hurt so many people and now he couldn't help the one time it mattered. He needed to do this, for his family.
He formed his hand into a fist to focus and took a look around the room, to find it as he had left it.
There was a small table with a chair, but the largest thing in the room was a huge web on the wall made out of newspaper articles, handwritten notes with names, single words or dates on them and pictures of people, places or devices. They were all connected by strings of different colors.
It was a huge tangled web that only Yuri could understand.
"The work of more or less a decade and nothing to show for it", he mocked himself out loud.
Yuri let himself fall down on the chair. He knew he could not focus on it just yet; his mind would not allow it. He needed to finish his thoughts, live through all the pain and failings again before it would let him go.
After the first fight with Serena he stopped, for a time. Mainly because he didn't want to disappoint her. He stopped going out every night and tried to help in other ways, but he just couldn't stop his anger. The fact that these people where still out there somewhere poisoned every of his thoughts.
And so, the second storage room got going much like the first and it all started over again.
The thing that made him stop this time is a memory that scares him to his core and that he does not like looking back at. He needed to grab the table while it came over him.
The night before it happened Yuri had sat next to the bed, while small hands were gripping Yuri's arm hard for any kind of support through the nightmare. Yuri will never forget the sharp pain in his arm and the helplessness he felt sitting there that night for hours.
The next time Yuri headed out to question someone he lost control. He could not remember much, except how familiar, almost easy, it all felt and how scared he was afterwards of almost having done something he couldn't take back.
That was three years ago.
Whenever he would try to help in other ways, he would fail. He never knew what to say or do. There were too many things he left unsaid, too many things he should have tried. He remembers sleepless nights next to the bed and failed attempts at conversation. He remembers things getting worse instead of better, days without hearing his voice once.
Then without warning his last chance past in the blink of an eye.
About one and a half years ago he went off to study computer sciences in another city. It was the best school in the country for it, or so Yuri was told, and he said he wanted to.
After the incident he would often do programming or put together computer parts. Yuri never got the feeling that he enjoyed it very much, but something seamed to draw him to it.
One-night Serena had asked him how he knew what he was doing and he just shrugged and looked away from her. That too is something he should have cared about more.
It all happened so fast. It all felt like one day he was there and the other he wasn't anymore. Yuri always thought he would have more time, that he would find just the right moment one day to say just the right thing.
Everything would fall into place they would talk and everyone would be happy again and just like that it slipped through his fingers and it felt like he lost his son for a second time.
All that lead him to the third dimly lit room that night.
He felt like he had no chance of ever healing through talking and the only other thing he knew how to do is fight.
Yuri finished his thoughts and took a deep breath. He slumped over in the chair feeling impossibly old in these moments. In truth he wasn't, but it felt like so much life had slipped by him.
His bones hurt and he could feel the fatigue of having barely had any sleep for the last few days, but he knew he needed to keep going.
"What is it old man? Can't handle a little action anymore?" he said, his trademark sarcasm once again targeting himself.
He got himself up and walked over to his web. He got a pen and crossed out the name of the person he questioned tonight.
That left his list under the word "Who?" with only one name.
Next, he underlined the words "electrocution?" under the Word "How?" and crossed out the question mark.
He tried to calm himself again, tried to think of who he is now and who he isn't anymore, but his mind went blank with hatred. He punched the wall with all his strengths. A few of the notes flew of the wall and he could feel pain in his hand.
He didn't think about what he would do when he found the people responsible often, but in that moment, he knew exactly.
In truth he knew that his investigation was at a dead-end. The people were careful and the size of the cover up was insane. At every turn he thought he could find something; mountains of possible evidence were nowhere to be found.
He concluded that only one entity was in the position to do this cover up considering so much evidence leads to Den city.
SOL Technology, it was the last name in his "Who?" list.
This did not bother him too much. He had already broken into a few of their complexes, but everything was locked up air tight digitally and he was quite frank with himself, he didn't have the skills to deal with that.
He only knew two people who could help him with it and he dreaded asking both for different reasons.
The first was Akaba Reiji, his former enemy. To be honest Yuri didn't think he had spoken a single word to him since being freed from Zarc and he always felt like he was suspicious of him. When Serena and the other Lancers would met, he would always be careful not to met Reiji's stern and judging gaze.
He could imagine little worse than asking him for help in illegally invading another company on flimsy at best evidence, but that paled in comparison to the alternative.
The second person he knew with the skills he needed was Professor Akaba Leo, His old master. Yuri also hasn't spoken with him since he decided to become a different person. It wasn't him anymore, he didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore.
He looked up at the word "electrocution" on the wall.
He would go tomorrow; he would find the last bit of information no matter how and then he would find them.
He and Starving Venom would destroy everything in their path. No matter how many guns they would put in the way or what opponent he would have to face. He would bring justice to them.
Then he would come back home to Serena and apologize for all the years he wasn't there for them, he would set everything right and they would have their son back, they would have their Yusaku back.
Notes: thank you very much for reading. If you have any questions or criticism feel free to leave a review. I always want to improve (=
Stay frosty!