It was Friday afternoon, a day and something has passed since Eve's arrival and things were going rather smoothly. Though she didn't show it at first the girl was actually a very smart individual and her only problem was that she wasn't used to live on her own. Of course with instructions from Arata she quickly took the hang of things. Even though the girl proved that she can handle things independent, the boy still didn't feel safe enough as to let her explore the town on her own.

Because of that Arata was playing on his phone, while leaning against a wall and impatiently tapping on it with his feet. Since Eve had a shortage of clothes, just three sets of which only two were appropriately for the autumn, the two settled that after he came back from school the two would go to the mall and buy her some new outfits with the money his father has sent specially for that task. Arata didn't know what irritates him the most – the fact that his father sent a summer outfits although the winter was just a month away; or how much time it takes for Eve to get ready.

He has already changed and was waiting on the first floor although she had been home all day. Since lately it was getting colder outside Arata had chosen to wear a closed white winter jacket and pants along with black combat boots. He was already running out of patience, but kept telling himself that it was fine. It was rare for him to go outside with someone else after all. Everyone in school disliked him and always isolate him from their groups; at one point there was even a rumor that his real parents have left him and he has killed foster parents. The weird looks everyone was giving him during that time and the whispers behind him back didn't bother him at all. With or without those rumors there already was a deep chasm between him and the others students.

The reason he became a friend with Richard was because he's the only one who tried to talk with him. Though, their friendship exists only in school and the underground it was better than nothing. Arata still felt bad because yesterday he tried to talk with Richard if he wants to hang out around town, but his friend left school right after the last belt rang so he didn't have the chance to ask; and today when Arata proposed Richard to come with him and Eve he got turned down.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the silence of the house. Arata turned his head just in time to see Eve come down the stairs. Her outfit has changed to be more fitting for the season as well. Instead of a white singlet and pink shorts she now wore a black sweater with a large yellow star on the chest along with jeans.

"Sorry that I made you wait." Eve apologized while putting on her high boots.

Arata couldn't help but stare at the girl. She looked so pretty. No matter how many times he has seen her this angelic charm that she radiate would never fail to amaze him. Arata could stay alike this all day if it was that Eve turned around and looked at him with amber eyes. The boy quickly snapped out of his trace and averted his eyes.

"Let's just go already." Arata said with a strangely weak tone. Why are you doing that, teenager hormones?

Eve noticed her companion's strange behavior, but choose to just ignore it for now and simple nodded her head as a sign that she agrees. It was just then that the girl noticed the bag that Arata was carrying in his left hand. It made her curious about what was inside. She couldn't tell what it was but from the way it was hanging she could deduce that the load inside was something heavy.

"I hope it isn't rude to ask, but what is inside?" Eve ashed, her monotone voice doing perfect job at hiding her inner curiosity. Or so she was thinking.

"Just my Duel Disk." Arata answered raising the bag higher. "I want to get it checked for bugs and other things like that. You know, for maintenance."

"You could ask me to help instead." Eve proposed. "I'm kind of good when it comes to engineering and dealing with computers."

"I didn't know that." Arata replied back, amazed to hear that. "But mistakes can always happen, so I prefer to at least get my money back if such a thing happen."

"I must agree." Eve nodded in approval of that decision. If the disk break – even if it isn't her fault- the shop will be still able to use that as an excuse to not return the money or give a replacement.

Arata who was standing beside Even stepped toward and opened the door. The boy gestured with his hand toward the outside as he smiled at Eve. "Ladies first."

Eve complied and took the first step outside the house. Although the cold weather outside her face felt strangely warm for some reason. She didn't exactly understand it, but right now she was feeling a little embarrassed.

After about twenty minutes of walking the two teen reached reached their destination; a larger building that had giant windows and looked very futuristic. The floor and walls were snow white with marble columns supporting the ceiling and the hall was with the sizes of a football field. Eve was surprised to find the Mall busting with people. Greetings and happy smiles were passed around them as the girl turned to look at her companion. Unlike her, Arata wasn't surprised in the least to see so many people since it was Friday. The boy was wearing a black set of headphones on his ears while his face had an uninterested expression.

Arata scanned the area around them – carefully examining the many items on each showcase. There were toys and all kinds of accessories on display. Arata took his headphones off and along with Eve the two trudged around the Mall for around ten minutes until they finally found a clothing store.

The duo walked inside and without wasting any time made their way toward the woman section of the store. They found many outfits with different designs; Arata told her to choose whatever suits her tastes only to come to the realization that Eve's tastes in clothing were very slack. Therefor she had no idea of what to choose. She never had objections to what she wore as long as it wasn't uncomfortably or weird.

"Having hard time choosing?" A happy voice came from behind the two. As they turned around the duo came face to face with a smiling young woman – around 23-25 years old. "Could I probably help you?"

"Neither of us has a great taste when it comes to clothing so I wouldn't refuse an advice from someone with more experience in that area." Arata answered while nodding his head. He then gestured to Eve who was standing beside him and continued. "Since it's getting colder and she doesn't have many choices in her wardrobe we are looking for something… more suitable for the season."

"Yes, yes, I see." The clerk clicked her fingers and tugged onto Eve. The girl looked nervously back at Arata, but it was too late. Before she could open here mouth to protest against the idea, she found herself surrounded by clothing racks filled with all kinds of outfits and dresses.

"Hmm, I think this will do it." The clerk said pulling out a cloth after cloth and hanging them to a confused Eve who lied in a pile of dresses. At the same time Arata was chilling a bit far away with an amused expression on his face.

"I think that much is enough." The clerk said hanging Eve a last white jacket after which she leaded the girl toward a fitting room. "Yep! That's it. Go, try them on."

The curtain closed and Arata moved next to the clerk. It was really nice from the woman to help them with this crisis. Even if that was just a part of her job, there were a lot of clerks that would just tell them to either chose something or leave, instead of help them. Because of that he felt obliged to thank her.

"Sorry for taking your time Miss." Arata apologized, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Ah, please!" The woman laughed and put a hand on his shoulder. "Seeing how cute you two lovebirds were I just had to. There aren't many boys that would go out of their way to help their girlfriends with shopping. You two seem to be perfect match for each other, right?"

"Ahaha… Yeah…" Arata answered as he averted his gaze to the side. That was going awkward as fuck. "Actually we are roommates. Just roommates."

"Ohoho, so you sleep with her?" The clerk gave him a dangerous look and Arata realized that with his answer… He fucked up.

Thankfully before the conversation could turn dangerous for one of the two parties (aka Arata) the curtain opened and the two people in front of it just starred at the magnificent being that stood in front of them. Eve was wearing a pink turtleneck sweater that reached a bit above her knees like a skirt with jeans underneath and finishing off with brown, fur lined boots. Thought the clothes that she wore had a simple, the fact that the one in them was her gave a completely new shine to the outfit. Arata felt like everything that came in contact with Eve's skin becomes somewhat more sacred and more valuable. The girl looked down at herself one more time before raising her head to glance at her companion.

"What so you think?" Eve asked. She didn't have much experience when it comes to shopping, so having the opinion of a third party was very important for her.

"It… really suits you." Arata answered while slowly nodding his head.

"I will take it then."

"Didn't you choose a bit too fast!? Why don't you try something else?"

"Yes, yes, that's right!" The clerk nodded here head eagerly. "You should absolutely try the rest!"

Eve nodded and closed the curtain again. Arata sighed in relief, though it was too early to relax just yet. He screwed up a big time by saying that Eve is his roommate and sincerely hoped that the clerk won't try to interrogate him. Judging by her age and behavior so far he could deduce that the phase 'personal space' doesn't mean much for her.

Thankfully a new client came to ask for help and the clerk left him alone. Taking a deep breath Arata leaned against a shelf. One landmine avoided, an entire minefield ahead.

After trying many other outfits, with Eve taking only the ones that Arata liked (something that the boy found strangely suspicious) the two made their way to the checkout where the same clerk was waiting with a bright smile on her face. The boy couldn't tell if that happy expression was real or false, but he didn't care either way.

"We will be taking those." Arata said putting everything that Eve has chosen on the checkout deck.

"That's some shopping you did kids." The woman exclaimed in awe staring at pile of clothes that she had to mark. It was more than what she was able to sell for the entire month.

"Can I pay with a credit card?" Arata asked pulling out his wallet. All of this would cost a lot more than the cast you would expect for a sixteen years old to carry with himself. Because of that he would prefer to not take any risks by having the money being accidentally stolen while he walks around.

"Of course." The clerk nodded her head while focusing on the pile of clothes in front of her. "The Mall also offers transport to address within the town's borders."

"Oh, that's a good thing to find out. I guess that I will only need to give my address, right?" Arata asked. Yeah, like hell he would try carrying all that, it would break his spine!

"Yes, just address along with your and name for contact." The woman answered with the same kind smile as before.

Arata nodded his head in silent agreement before giving his credit card while also getting a small document to fill up with the needed information. I took him just a moment and he gave the paper back to the clerk after which he had to input the password in the credit card terminal and done. With this most of his duties for today has been finished. All that left now was to get his Duel Disk cheeked and go back home. With this thought in his head Arata turned toward Eve who was looking around the shop, curiously. Was that her first time in such a place?

Come to think about it, she was coming from a different country with different culture and probably shops. Curiosity would be an expected reaction from anyone if they were to see something that they haven't seen before. Maybe he could show Eve around and show her the town before they head back? Not that Arata was particularly interested in doing that, but wouldn't it be rude from his side as host to just keep her locked in his house twenty-four seven? Scrap that, it's actually illegal to do such a thing!

The two teens walked out of the shop and quickly headed toward the next location. Since that wasn't the first time Arata needed to get his Duel Disk maintained he knew pretty well where all of the Card Shops in the town were. Thought he personally preferred the one on District Six due to it being closer to his home and because the owner is an old friend of his father but it was on the opposite direction from the Mall so it couldn't be helped this time.

And not too long, they reached the Card Shop, it wasn't very different from any other shops of this kind he has seen before. Many structure decks and booster packs of various card games were behind the showcase, put on display for the passers. Of course, most of those were Yu-Gi-Oh related since Konami owned most of the shops and companies. But what else could someone expect, the game's fan base practically tripled after they introduced the real Solid Vision and somehow most of the balancing problems that everyone was barking about were somehow forgotten and left in the darkness.

The duo walked inside the building and looked around. The shop had white walls with wallpapers and other such ads taped on them. It was filled with shelves of accessories of various games, card pacts and so on. The two then passed an open area in the middle of the store with three white mechanical tables that had two small screens attached to the sides and one large touch screen on top. Those were dueling tables as the staff liked to refer to them; another invention of Konami, practically a replacement of the old Duel Terminal that's also based after some online dueling sites and programs that the players used as a mean to test out new cards.

"Good day." The clerk of this place, a young man with black hair said wearing what Arata could only suspect to be another fake smile.

"Good day." Arata replied and took out the Duel Disk from the plastic bag he was holding. "I want to get my Duel Dis cheeked. There isn't any particular problem with it but I want to have it maintained just to be safe."

"Of course." The clerk nodded taking the device in his hands, carefully looking it all over. "I see, it's one of the older models. They have a simpler programming so it should be done in around half a hour."

"Thanks a lot." Arata replied and turned to his left where Eve was standing.

She wasn't there anymore.

Panicked Arata looked around the place and sighed in relief when he found the girl standing beside one of the Dueling tables, examining it with her signature poker face. Of course he was already familiar with the girl's true nature so he knew that she was curious about the device and how it works. But it wouldn't be the same for people who didn't know her so well, they would think that she was throwing mental daggers at the poor equipment. Maybe he could play one game with her, to see how good she is with the cards.

"Are you up for a duel?" Arata asked stepping beside the girl.

Eve turned her head toward the boy and just nodded with the same blank and emotionless expression as before. No matter how many times he has seen it, every time Arata looked at the girl he had the sense that he was face to face with a precious doll. In a sense that was the right description for such a being. During the most of the last two days they spent together she never moved unless he told her to and during that time showed completely no reaction except blinking. It was such a strange feeling to live with someone like that. He almost felt pity toward the girl for what must have happened to make her act this way.

The key word was almost.

"First you click the power-up button." Arata instructed as the two walked at each side of the table and clicked a button near the smaller screens on the sides and the entire machine turned to life as a menu with four options appeared on the smaller screens; those being: 'Story Mode', 'Player Mode', 'Deck List' and 'Deck Builder'.

"The cards I use aren't here." Eve noted scrolling through the list of available cards.

"Those tables get updated only once the actual cards come to sale." Arata explained putting a hand under his chin. "Since the OCG and TCG have different release dates if your deck is one of the newer ones then there is a chance that those cards haven't been added to the TCG data list yet. Well, since it wouldn't be fair if I used my own Deck while you used a different one how about we both build a new one here and play with those?"

"It sounds like a fair game." Eve nodded at the idea and turned her attention back toward the screen once again, scrolling furiously through the cards. Arata took noticed of how fast her hand was moving from the other side of the table and was caught by surprise. But after a moment his expression turned to a happy one and he turned back to his own screen.

The half hour passed like a moment for the teens. After Arata had built a Nekroz deck and Eve a Fluffal one they had five matches in total. Two of which were won by Arata while the other two went to Eve and then they choose to not finish the last one and leave it as a draw. This was the first time that both of them had found someone that could match the other's skills so they choose to leave it as a draw for that reason. So that one day they became even more skilled than now they both would have a reason to face each other once again.

After that Arata took his Duel Disk and the rest of the day went on simply with the two exploring the rest of the Mall. They played in the arcade, visited the pet shop (for reasons unknown to Arata) had an adventure when Eve got lost, thought she preferred to refer to it a game of Hide and Seek and finally Arata showed her what a hotdog truly means. Overall that was the most interesting time the boy had since he could remember. And though her face didn't show it he was sure that Eve felt the same way as him.

Currently the teens were walking down the empty streets of the town. The Sun has hidden away and it was the Moon's time to rule and caste it's celestial light over the world. There was no wind tonight and the air was warm, embracing them. There was no one else there expect Arata, Eve and the two shadows casted by the street lamps.

"So what would you say for today? Did you have fun?"

Arata who had his hands hidden in the pockets of his jacket suddenly asked, turning toward the girl walking with him. Eve who was quietly sipping on a lemonade turned her eyes toward her companion. The girl who was occupied with something else just nodded her head; even if she didn't say it you could tell that her mood had lightened up due to today. Arata let out a short laugh and put a hand on her head, stroking the doll's hair.

Then Eve stopped.

Arata did as well and looked back toward the girl, confused. It was a bit hard to notice, but Eve's eyes had widened and for the first time since her arrival Arata could read an emotion showing on her flawless face. The boy slowly lost his smile because her eyes he could read true fear. More than that it was a prophecy of despair. He looked ahead and saw what appeared to be the figured of a man glaring at them from across the streets.

This new person was taller than both of them, standing over six feet and seemed to notice the boy's confusion as he slowly stepped into the light of the street lamps. Arata couldn't make out most of his other features from this distance but he could make out that this person had messy blonde hair which was combed down. He was also wearing a black jacket and matching black cargo pants. The three stared at each other for a good minute until Arata tried walking forwards, but Eve pulled him back, squeezing his hand as she looked up at him with an almost pleading expression.

"No, don't! It's too dangerous to stay here! Please, run!" she blurted out, trying to pull the boy back.

Arata however, couldn't under what the problem was. He couldn't see any danger coming from that guy over there and was completely confused about why she was so afraid of this guy. Slowly, his eyes widened and he looked back toward the man.

One of his hands went up and into his jacket, and a moment later, it came back out with a big, shining knife. Arata froze and his skin palled. The man began walking towards them, a crazy grin growing on his face as he does so.

A/N: That sudden change of tone at the end of the chapter caught you by surprise, didn't it?

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the favoriting and following. Also, if you liked this chapter, or the story in general, leave a fav/follow/review. Also constructive criticism is very welcome!

Since I don't know how to make this A.N. interesting or bombastic I will leave it as it is!

Diabolic Tracer out!