"I'm home!" Crow called, shutting the door behind him. "Jack? Yusei?"
"I'm here, but Jack's still out." Their resident ghost appeared from the kitchen. "How'd the job hunt go?"
"Great. I'm going to be the delivery boy for the local grocery store."
"Nice! Do you want to see what I learned today while you were gone?"
Not seeing the mischievous grin on Yusei's face, Crow turned to face him. "Sure." The smile left his face, though, when Yusei faded from view. "Yusei? Yusei! Where are you?" He spun around trying to locate him. Sure Yusei seemed nice enough, but that didn't change the fact that he was a ghost.
"Boo!" Crow jumped and screamed, nearly having a heart attack when he felt a hand fall on his shoulder. "Don't do that!"
The teen laughed lightly. "I'm sorry. I couldn't resist."
"Yeah. Sure you couldn't."
"I'm sorry. I guess you really are scared of ghosts." Yusei rubbed the back of his neck.
"I wouldn't say scared, exactly. I just don't like them." As soon as the words left Crow's mouth, he remembered who he was talking to. "Um, not that I don't like you, just, you know, ghosts in general."
"I understand. I'm still getting used to this whole thing myself. Speaking of which, did you, uh, learn anything?" Yusei tried to keep the hope out of his voice, but Crow could still hear it.
"I'm sorry. I asked some people if they knew why the people who lived here before us had moved out, but they all told me it was it was for personal reasons. That's all I know."
The ghost teen let out a deep sigh, and then replied. "At least that means they're still alive. Thank you."
Crow smiled faintly, wondering what it must feel like to have so little knowledge of what had happened to himself that just hearing his family was still breathing came as such a relief.
Yyyyy
Jack, lost in thought at the moment as well, was making his way back to their house along the road. To one side, there was a beautiful, woodland park, while on the other, a horse pasture. He thought back to his encounter at the garage. That kid, Rally, was one of the brothers Yusei had asked them to look for, but he obviously wasn't with Kalin. From the sounds of it, that brother had taken off shortly after Yusei . . . died? Was that the right word anymore? He didn't look to be more than fifteen or sixteen years old, and appeared to be healthy. Well, aside from the whole 'ghost' situation. Point being, chances were becoming greater the longer he thought about it that Yusei hadn't just died of natural causes. And didn't ghosts who had died suddenly sometimes not even realize that they're dead and should, what did people call it? Cross over?
"Hey, space cadet!" Snapping back to reality, Jack noticed a girl astride a large horse on the other side of the fence. Her bright red was tied back in a ponytail and she wore a jean jacket than had obviously seen better years. "You're new, right? I'm Akiza. Welcome to the neighborhood." She dismounted and led her horse over to the fence.
"Thanks. My name's Jack." He held out his hand and she shook it firmly.
"You moved into the farmhouse up the road, didn't you?" She asked, losing a bit of her smile. "You better take care of that old place."
"We plan to, don't worry."
"Good. The boys that lived there before always made sure everything was in as good of condition as they could get it. I'd hate to see anything happen to it."
Deciding this might be as good a time as any, Jack decided to pry. "I heard from the people down at the garage that one of the boys disappeared."
Akiza snorted in annoyance. Or maybe anger. "Yusei. When he was here, everything was perfect. He was the kind of guy that didn't care if you were a stranger, or the mayor. If you were in trouble, he'd help you out. Then, one day, he was just gone. His phone was on the kitchen table, jacket was hung up by the door, but no one ever saw him again. People of this town have mixed ideas of what happened. Some think that he ran away from home, but others think there's no way he would just leave his family behind. The two of us were so close to being old enough to enter the partners Turbo Dueling circuit, too. There's no way he'd just leave it all behind." She smiled sadly and glanced at the ground. "Not to mention, we'd only just started dating. We had our first kiss the night before he . . . well, you know."
"I heard that he had some sort of fight-,"
"Yeah. Tank, Rally, Blitz, and Nerve really need to learn to quit talking in front of people. Police questioned everyone once Yusei had officially been deemed a missing person. Rally, his younger brother, had apparently witnessed an argument between Kalin and Yusei." She sighed. "Kalin's had a history of violence and anger problems, so everyone just jumped to the obvious conclusion."
"Was he interested in entering the dueling circuit, too? Like Yusei?" Jack inquired.
Akiza looked a bit confused, but answered, anyway. "Yeah, he was. Why?"
"Maybe he was jealous of you having Yusei as a partner? A guy with a history such as his, it's no great stretch of the imagination to see him getting physical in an argument. And, from what I've heard, Kalin left town soon after Yusei-,"
"Y'know, I saw you heading to town earlier with your brother." Akiza cut Jack off, tone dark and expression hard.
"Yeah, what about it?" Jack didn't like the feeling he was getting from her.
"You seemed to be having a bit of a disagreement. When I heard two new rookies were in town, I looked you up online. You seem to be the real powerhouse of the partnership. What's to stop you from realizing you could make it big as a solo duelist if only that brother of yours wasn't in the way?"
"What are you-,"
"What? You obviously don't get along with him. I saw you two just this morning. What's to stop you from doing away with him permanently?"
"Are you suggesting that I would kill my own brother?" The thought scared Jack, but not as much as the sure tone the cowgirl spoke with. "How dare you-,"
"How dare I what? Accuse you of what you just accused Kalin of? First off, you seem to be mistaken. Yusei wasn't going to be my partner. We may have been dating, but we recognized each other as rivals. Yusei was teamed up with Kalin." She patted her horse as it nibbled at the grass by her boots. "Yusei kept Kalin sane. There's no way he would ever hurt him. Kalin, before he got adopted and once after, had been sent to the facility. This is a small town, so people were wary of him. That turned to mocking once the other kids and teens realized he refused to fight back. Yusei wouldn't let anyone pick on his big brother, though. Even after their parents were killed in a car wreak, Yusei's top priority was keeping Kalin safe. From himself and everyone else. When he . . . left, everyone blamed Kalin. According to the townsfolk, he either killed him, or chased him off. No one was there to protect him anymore."
"You sound like you were pretty close to them. Couldn't you help?" Jack took a step forward, reaching out to pet the large animal now staring at him. He'd never show it, but he'd never actually touched a horse before and was a bit nervous to. When Akiza didn't respond, he turn his attention away from the horse and back to her to see a guilty look adorning her face.
"I . . . I got frustrated one day. Well, that's not the right word. Frustrated, mad, upset, confused, scared. Take your pick. I ended up losing it and chewing him out. I've known that family since Yusei and I were five, and I . . . I guess I knew all the buttons to push. I just didn't know who else to blame and took it all out on him. The next day, he packed up and left. He said he was going to track Yusei down and bring him back home. Rally almost got sent to an orphanage. Blitz, Nerve, and Tank have custody of him now, but are under tight supervision as they've always had trouble making ends meet."
"That- Oww!" Jack yelped and jerked his hand back. The horse, that vile animal, had just bitten him!
"Rose! You know better." Akiza pulled the reins just enough so that it wasn't staring at him anymore. "I'd better finish exercising her. You keep what I said in mind. Better yet, keep your nose out of where it doesn't belong. That family's been through enough without some newcomers making a game out of playing detective." She placed a foot in the stirrup, swung up into the saddle, and rode off.
"Good-bye to you, too." Jack muttered, holding his hand and walking off.
Yyyyy
"Is he gone?" Akiza didn't even have to turn her head to know who was hiding in her bushes.
"Yes, Carly. He's gone. Though why you decided to get a crush on that guy is beyond me."
A girl with large glasses and long, dark hair stood up, ignoring the leaves stuck all over her person. She had seen Jack Atlas walking up the rode and panicked, going for the nearest hiding spot. "He's a great duelist, and hot, and tall, and strong, and-,"
"A snoop." Akiza cut her off, removing the saddle from her horse. "You can fawn over him all you want, I know I can't stop you. But I don't like him."
Yyyyy
Well, this took longer than I thought to get out. I hope I'm not making this too obvious/confusing. Please drop a review telling me how I'm doing! I need to know for this story! And don't worry. Action is coming soon. :3