Chapter 2

"We're gonna have fun today, right Naty?" I asked happily, putting on my slip-on shoes.

"Yeah, it'll be great!" Naty grinned. "I have a new card that I found the other day. It'll be cool to show the others." She put on her shoes and tried to tie up the laces, but had no success. "Ugh, I hate tying my shoes!"

"Need some help, baby girl?" We both turned to see a dark-skinned man with holed black jeans, a green camo jacket, and a black shirt. His face looked rough with scars and a slow-growing beard, but he had a good heart for us. Naty nodded, and the man knelt down to tie her shoes. "You know, sooner or later, you're going to be doing this on your own."

"But tying them slows me down. How come you can do it so well, Papa Ray?"

"Well, I've been tying my own shoes for long that I can do it blindfolded!" Ray chuckled. "Plus, I've tied many kids' shoes, uniquely yours." Naty pouted at his last comment, which made the man laugh.

"That's why I wear shoes that I can easily put on!" I announced, looking at my shoes that didn't have laces.

"It'd be nice to have some that will actually fit me," Naty mumbled. Ray finished tying both of Naty's shoes and stood up, saying,

"One of these days, we'll find you a pair. It's just hard to find anything good in this sector of Yuina. But I think things will get better when you two grow up. You'll see." I glanced up at him, and I could see a twinkle of pride in his red eyes. I wondered why he had that twinkle, but the thought suddenly vanished because Naty's shoes were tied. That meant we could go play.

"We're gonna go find Sagi and Lumi!" I said, running out the front door and into the street.

"And Rocky too!" Naty added, running towards me.

"Remember to come back before dinner!" Ray yelled as we ran. "And don't get caught by the police!"

"We won't!" the two of us said in unison. We didn't have to worry about cars when going down the street. Papa Ray says there haven't been cars in Sector 7 for years, but I didn't see why we couldn't have cars. There was enough space for them. However, Naty said that cars wouldn't look too good in a place like this. Apparently, Sector 7 was the only sector that didn't have a lot of tall buildings. Some of the buildings were torn down, others were completed but needed a good paint job and better pipeage. I even heard that there were places here that didn't have a good roof! But I didn't care if we had a roof or not. I was just happy to have people taking care of me. In the middle of our run, Naty decided to take the lead, so she ran ahead of me, past some ropes of hanging laundry and kids running around with no shoes on.

"Why don't some people have shoes?" I asked while we were running.

"There are people here that can't afford shoes," my friend explained. "We're lucky enough to get shoes."

"Oh, okay! But doesn't Sagi and Lumi have shoes too?"

"Yeah!"

"That means we're shoe buddies!" Naty laughed at my comment as we ran to a street where there were four ways to turn to. An old and dim light post stood in the middle of the street. The four ways seem to look the same: rusty, old, and maybe a little barren. I wasn't sure what barren meant, but that's what one of Papa Ray's friends said about Sector 7. It's barren. But I just started to use that word a lot in times that make sense to me. "Sagi!" I called out. "Lumi, Rocky! Where are you guys?" I looked up a bit at Naty, who made a noise to call for them. She had her hands folded together tightly, and her lips were pressed on the bottom part of her thumbs. I wished I could do that but that takes a lot of skill, and I definitely don't have that.

"We're coming, you two!" a boy's voice exclaimed. Out from a small building came two boys that were slightly taller than Naty and I. One boy had blonde hair, blue eyes, a shirt that matched his eyes, and tan shorts. The other boy had light brown hair, gray eyes, a green shirt, and black shorts. They both had a few bandages on their arms and legs; however, I wasn't bothered by that. Those two seemed to get hurt a lot. Although I did notice that one of them had a plastic bag.

"Hi Lumi, hi Sagi!" I said with a grin. "Are those new bandages?"

"Yeah!" the blonde-haired boy said proudly. "I climbed a metal pile today and found an old action figure. Sagi found something too!"

"Really, Lumi?" Naty said. She looked over at the other boy and asked what he found in a pile.

"Here I'll show you," Lumi said. He reached inside the plastic bag and grabbed a metal-wired toy that was wrapped in layers of circles. "Ta-da!"

"Ooh," we said in awe. I certainly haven't seen something like that before, and neither did Sagi or Naty.

"Cool, right?" Lumi commented. "I talked to Rocky's dad, and he said that it's called a slinky."

"Hi, slinky!" I said excitedly.

"But the slinky can't talk, Fi!" Sagi mentioned.

"Sure, it can! My card did a few days ago."

"Yeah but this is just something metal," Naty noted. "I don't think it's going to talk to you."

"Oh okay," I replied, a little disappointed. I decided to start another conversation to keep me upbeat and away from what I said. "Where's Rocky?"

"He's coming," Sagi answered. "He has to do a few things for his dad." Suddenly, another boy came running to the little group, wearing a brown poncho that covered his shirt and black pants. I glanced to see the boy and waved happily. "There he is!" Sagi grinned. "We're over here, Rocky!" The boy didn't say anything until he was in front of the group, panting from the run.

"Rocky is sorry that he's late," the boy apologized. "Dad wanted Rocky to check on the cooling metal."

"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed. "Rocky's dad is uh...what's that word again?"

"A blacksmith," Lumi said, looking at Rocky. "Rocky's dad is a blacksmith." Rocky nodded excitedly.

"Rocky thinks that he'll be a blacksmith when he grows up," Rocky said proudly. I tilted my head, confused a bit. I heard from Papa Ray that it would be hard for Rocky to be a good blacksmith. I couldn't understand why but he said that it had to with my friend's face. His nose is not where everyone else's nose should, I think that's what everyone called crooked. His cheeks looked a bit puffy too. He'd seem strange to be a blacksmith, but that'd be cool to have a blacksmith friend, besides his dad.

"Did you guys bring the cards?" Sagi asked everyone.

"Yeah!" the rest of us said proudly. We pulled out little cards that had monsters on them and showed the cards to each other. I had pulled out Divine Grace Northwemko, which was now my favorite card. Everyone else had cool cards too. I just wished I could read the letters correctly on their cards.

"Now let's go play with them!" I announced excitedly. Everyone else agreed, and we began running down one of the four paths on the streets. As I ran, I decided to bring Northwemko out so that she could play with us. "Do you guys think it'd be okay if I bring my friend out of her card?" I asked the others as soon as we took a break from running.

"Yeah, it'd be fun!" Sagi exclaimed. "Let's see that power of yours, Fi."

"Rocky wants to see his friend come out of his card too!" Rocky added, holding his card tight. "Can Rocky see his friend too?"

"Um, I've never brought out more than one friend before," I admitted. But seeing how Rocky was sad, I added, "But I can give it a try! Papa Ray says that we should try out new things once in a while."

"Yay!" Rocky grinned. "Here is Rocky's card." He gave me the card, and I took a good look at it, trying to read what it says. Naty went up to me and stared at the card too.

"What does the card say, Naty?" I asked her. Out of our entire group, Naty was the best reader.

"It says...Fossil Warrior Skull Knight," Naty read at the top of the card. "It's a Rock monster."

"Rock is cool because Rocky has that in his name," Rocky said. "Also, the card looks cool!"

"Yeah, the card does look kind of cool," I noted. Although I thought it looked kind of scary because of the monster's skeleton appearance. "I'll bring Skull Knight out as soon as I get Northy out of her card," I told Northwemko to come out of her card, and she appeared in a few seconds, smiling at me.

"Hello, little Mistress," she said. "Am I here to play with you and your friends again?"

"Uh-huh! We're also going to get another friend to play with us too."

"Really, who?" I showed Northwemko my friend's card, and she said,

"What an interesting card. Are you sure you want to bring him out?"

"Yeah!" Rocky answered. "Rocky wants to meet his friend, like how Fiore met her card friend."

"Very well then. Mistress Fiore, will you do the honor of bringing the knight out?"

"Ok!" I said. I looked at Rocky's card and told it to come out of its card. I waited for a few minutes, and then a bright orange light appeared from the card. That light took the shape of a skeleton man with brown armor, a blue cape, and a sword.

"Who dares wake the knight of the Skull King?" the Duel Monster demanded.

"I did!" I exclaimed with a smile. My friends stared at me with frightened looks. They probably thought I was crazy. "We brought you out because we want you to play with us, and Rocky wants to meet you too!"

"H-Hello," Rocky stammered shyly, looking at his card friend. The Skull Knight looked at Rocky and said with a small bow,

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I hope to be of use to you on the battlefield. But am I to merely "play" with you, with no explanation in mind?"

"Uh, we play for fun!" Naty said. "Is that what you call an explanation?"

"Skull Knight, they are just children," Northwemko explained softly. "Please have some sympathy for them. I am sure you had your time as a child many moons ago."

"I suppose," Fossil Warrior Skull Knight said with a sigh. "But this was not what I expected when I came out of my card. I expected more of a duel than playtime."

"Well, we cannot get everything we want, but it could have been worse." Skull Knight nodded in agreement. My friends and I were watching the conversation play out until Rocky came up to his card friend and hugged him. The knight grunted in surprise and looked down at Rocky.

"Rocky thinks you're pretty cool," he said, looking at the knight. "Are you going to play with Rocky and his friends?"

"Yeah, please?" I asked. "It'll be fun!"

"Hmm," the knight said, thinking to himself. "I suppose a little fun will not hurt..."

"Yay!" my friends and I exclaimed. "Let's play!" So all of us, including Northwemko and Skull Knight, played for most of the day.

I had one! I had another vivid dream, which was probably a memory like what Northwemko said. This time there were a lot of people in it. Papa Ray, Naty, Sagi, Lumi, and Rocky. I know those names...I know those people! Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue, especially those last four people. It looked like that those names were just nicknames, like how I was called Fi when in actuality it's Fiore. Now, what were their real names again?

Lizzy looked at the hospital room ceiling, hoping to gain some recollection of their names. "What was it, what was it?" she mumbled to herself, putting the eraser part of her pencil to her lips. She sighed and then began to write again.

Man, I'm really starting to hate not remembering anything! How am I supposed to know these things without them being here?! I'm sure Northwemko won't be much help because I think she wants me to figure it out on my own. Why can't I have some startling realization and remember everything? So that I won't have to worry about it. So that everyone else won't worry about me.

The door to Lizzy's hospital room opened and in came the nurse, bringing in a tray of food. "How are you doing, sweetheart?" she asked.

"I'm frustrated," Lizzy said bluntly. "I can't figure out some of my friends' names. I'm sure I know it!"

"I know that is troubling you," the nurse said with a soft smile. "But you'll remember what it is soon. Not everything in life can be understood in one day, especially on an empty stomach." She placed the tray of food on Lizzy's adjustable table and slid the table towards the girl. "Eat up!"

"Oh, yummy!" Lizzy exclaimed, eyeing the food. "Is that an apple?" Before getting an answer, she took the apple and began to eat it whole. "Yummy~."

The nurse laughed. "My goodness, I knew it was a good idea to get you some food," she said.

"Well, it was a great idea," Lizzy said, still eating. "Thank you...what was your name? I'm sorry, I don't think I got your name when I woke up from my coma a week ago."

"Not a problem, sweetie," the nurse smiled. "My name is Natasha."

"Thank you, Nat-" Lizzy was about to take another bite of the apple, but she stopped mid-motion. Her eyes widened slowly, and she put the apple down on the food tray. Natasha looked over at her and asked,

"Are you all right, Lizzy?"

"Natasha..." the amnesiac repeated.

"Yes, child. That's my name."

"Y-You have the same name as her."

"Who?"

"Naty's. Naty's real name is Natasha!" Tears began to slip from Lizzy's eyes as she began to remember what she was missing a few moments ago. "Natasha, Sagittarius, Lumière, and Rockland! That was their names! I better write it down now before I forget." She pulled away from the little table that had her food and grabbed her pencil. The nurse rubbed Lizzy's head and said,

"Remember to eat when you're done, all right?"

"Ok!" Lizzy replied as the nurse left her room. She started to write again.

I remember their names now! The kind nurse helped me figure it out. It turned out that she had the same name as Naty, which is Natasha. That got me to remember. Oh, those four. We had the craziest adventures, probably ones that we weren't supposed to have as kids. We scavenged through piles of random things to find the coolest stuff, jumped from one building to another to pretend that we were adventurers, and played with cards. I kept bringing out our monster cards so that we can play with them too! Just like in the dream when I brought out my card friend and Rocky's card friend! Though I'm sure, the latter friend was stunned to be out of his card. It was still fun, to hang out with everyone! However, I was the baby of the group. Everyone else was at least a year older than me, so they had to make sure that I didn't get hurt. But I had fun! I had fun hanging out with them. They were my childhood friends.

I think I remember what happened to Rocky too. I didn't hear of it back then because I was too young, but his face was like that because he was accidentally dropped as a baby. His parents were escaping a house fire when it happened, and there were no doctors that could fix his face. So, he grew up with a disfigured face, though I think it was just his nose and cheeks that were injured in the accident. He was still a sweet boy though. Oh, how I miss those guys so much now! Maybe I can visit them after I get out of the hospital in a few days.