Judgment of the World

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: Just some double words and such. Not bad really!

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

It was frustrating.

He disengaged his duel disk from his arm, unzipped his riding jacket discarding both on the first chair that he came across, which was right next to the phone system. Never stopping as he stalked his way to the couch and threw himself on it in aggravation at how the day, no 'weeks', had gone. He stretched himself out and stared fixedly at the ceiling that he had stared day after day after each fruitless search.

They had beaten the Earthbound Gods and the reward had been the restoration of everyone that had been taken by them. Including most of the death bound Dark Signers, though they seemed to be free of whatever had consumed them after death. Allowing them to carry on their lives free of the pain of misdirected anger and enjoy their lives. Well for some, considering Misty's vendetta against Aki shifted to try and explore deeper into the group Aki had been a part of. Rather than going after Aki privately, heavily implying that their issue had been resolved and the memory of why the change had carried over.

So where on Earth was 'Carly'?

She knew where he lived, and he expected her to show up the first day after she was freed. He even waited in his penthouse for two whole 'weeks' for her to arrive! The staff had been ordered, repeatedly, that when she showed up, to just let her in! So why hadn't she arrived? It was rude to make a King wait, especially when they both knew exactly what they wanted! It was just a horrible crime to make him, 'him', walk around the city like some lowly commoner look for her. But after two weeks of no Carly, he resigned himself to the fact that he would have to look for her. So out into the city he went, riding around the town while studying the people on the street, trying to find her.

Days had turned into weeks, weeks spilled into month and weeks and Jack was fighting depression with frustration. He had stalked the streets of Domino all day until exhaustion finally demanded that he go and take a break. So he would go back to his penthouse and dropped down on the couch so that he could stare his displeasure at the ceiling. One didn't realize how big the city was until they had to drive through every single street and side road. At least he was free to travel the city and was starting to develop an understanding of life outside of Satellite, so he could travel without making people want to inquire of his true upbringing.

Driving by all those places they had spent time at had become irritating, as it reminded him of his failure. She had the foresight to see through his dueling style to insure that she would return to death at the end of their duel. Now each place mocked him silently of his attempts to return to those points in his life. Carly was alive, she had to be alive, of every single one of the Dark Signers she was the least guilty of any wrong doing!

His mind felt like a hamster running on a wheel, going faster and faster until he was pretty sure his head would unscrew itself and fall off. He was never the brains of the group, all this internal thinking was more Yusei's cup of tea. He couldn't think of asking for Yusei's help either, since Yusei was able to find his soul mate the first tournament he went to! Scoring a lover AND the title of Turbo Duel King, followed up by Jack having to ask for help to find the girl he was in love with? Nope, nope nope! Not going to ask. And Aki was 'clearly' Yuseis' soulmate because any girl who liked to beat people into submission for not doing as she wished; fit so well with his need to be beaten for stuff that wasn't even his fault.

A cup of tea actually began to sound good enough that it got him off the couch and distracted by the blinking light on Jack's phone. Reminding him that he had been routing all his phone messages to the penthouse about half a week ago. 'Reminding' being the word because Jack had neglected to return the phone back to its normal setting. But at least it explained why Mikage wasn't bothering him like normal.

Two messages a day from Mikage about things he didn't care about, several messages checking in on him from Crow and Yusei. The last one being from Yusei inviting him over to the twins' place because Yusei and Aki were visiting them. With enough background noise to say that there were more than four people hanging out. How long had it been since he had spoken to them, been surrounded by his friends? Far too long, obsessing over Carly was proving fruitless so he grabbed his jacket and made a quick trip to the mirror for appearances sake before he dialed Yusei's address.

"Jack."

Yusei was in his regular dark clothes, bracketed by the twins when he said that one word. Then in a blink of that moment several more children had appeared, squeezing into the view.

"So what is this I'm hear about you being here in Neo Domino?" Jack boomed proudly, while the two children who were not the twins began cheering excitedly about the King.

Yusei never got the chance to answer as the children bubbled with excitement and drowned Yusei's calm voice as they begged him to come over. Two kings and the new kings' queen? The children were giving such puppy dog eyes that Jack couldn't resist, though he would make them work for it.

"You think that I, Jack Atlas, would just appear for no reason at a play date?" He imperiously demanded, but while the children wilted a bit Rua, jumped right in on the challenge.

"Yeah! Big Sis got us a platter of snacks and drinks, there's even tea and hot coco! How can you turn down that?"

Ruka was nodding, and seeing that they were confident the other children redoubled their pleas to get the Great Jack Atlas to come over.

Yusei was just sitting there with what appeared to be a disinterested expression, however; Jack could see the very subtle light of expression in Yusei's eyes and the quirk of his mouth. As stoic as Yusei 'could' act, he was clearly amused by the kids and not the least bit displeased by their eagerness.

Jack made a showing of closing his eyes and thinking deeply at the 'pitiful' offer placed before him. But spending time with an old friend and surrounded by voices was a lot better than another empty night in his penthouse. Besides the twins 'were' alone, he had yet to see where they lived and he along with the others had agreed. It would be well advised to always have tabs on where the twins were. Ruka with her heart condition and Rua being her only help?

Martha didn't raise them to just abandon those who needed them. Perhaps he had lost his way over the years, but he knew how to find his way back. True, they couldn't take care of all the children, though Crow certainly tried, but the twins were 'their' responsibility. Ruka bore the Mark and Rua was part of the deal, so it was always important to keep tabs on them. Tabs he hadn't taken, directly, though if the Marks started to ache he would have dropped what he was doing. Yet Yusei didn't have the clearance to just leave Satellite on a whim, so there was a question of how he even 'got' there. Either he went through Aki and requested visiting Neo Domino, or Aki herself went to get him.

Hmph.

She got him.

"Fine, I shall attend your little gathering," Jack bellowed in a suitably dramatic fashion, pleased at the squealing of the children in reaction to his proclamation. They dashed off and he could hear them reporting to the others in the background.

"You realize that now there are going to be even more people here," Yusei spoke, the corner of his mouth going up higher as did an eyebrow. "I'll have them let security know you're coming, and send the directions directly to your D-Wheel."

"Hmph."

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"You know he 'could' just ride in with the sea of children coming over," Aki noted nonchalantly as she walked to Yusei's side. Two kids were at her side, peering at Yusei with excited nervousness as he turned to look up at her and then down at them. Indeed, the moment they had arrived Rua had been fielding calls from their class from school wanting to come over.

But there was some trepidation due to Yusei's time in jail, resulting in that every time Aki went to Yusei, several kids immediately clustered up around her. Clinging to the older duelist for protection from the possible 'dangerous' Duel King. That wasn't to say that 'no' child would approach him, a good number had already gotten close and had asked all manners of questions, which he either patiently answered or declined to answer. But there were still pairs upon pairs of eyes to look at him from the back of Aki's dress.

As Yusei sat back in the chair to converse with Aki, several pairs of eyes began taking in details for the mental check list of the older pair. Since how many parents would willingly accept that a daughter of an official of the country would have such easy interaction with a criminal? Not only that but Aki dressed a little too boldly for what their parents would refer to as a 'proper Japanese lady'. All the same though it was 'exciting' and there was a strong sense of hopefulness that was growing among the kids. After all a guy who built his deck off the discarded cards of others was able to make a deck that could win him the Turbo Duel King crown?

Ruka found herself in an interesting position since she didn't have 'this' many friends and was sticking close to Patty, Aki, or Yusei while her twin was bouncing around. Kuribon was also currently keeping Witch of the Black Rose company, as the Spirit was hovering near Aki with a death grip on her wand. Ruka wasn't too sure what the problem was, save Black Rose seemed almost overly protective of Aki, while serving as Aki's go between for the deck. With Black Rose Dragon sounding quite possibly border line mad, leaving Ruka painfully wishing she could talk to Ancient Fairy Dragon. But not with all these people running all over the place.

Aki, so far was holding her own beautifully, though there really wasn't anything going on that could cause a problem. Rua was letting in a fresh group of people into their home, and as Aki went to the door, Yusei stood up and followed in her shadow. His eyes sweeping over each newcomer in an effort to make sure that it was safe for the twins, and that anyone who saw him knew not to try anything even if they thought about it. True, Yusei didn't have quick access to the twins if something happened, but Jack and Aki both did and he didn't want anyone to forget that. Surveying his territory like a wolf, or perhaps a dragon would be a better analogy, he followed Aki along.

Then again, she had all the social grace and pose that he lacked making introductions or even conversations easier. As this next round of kids came with several teens, one who accompanied the kids who lived on his floor freeing up the parents. An older sister of one small boy, and a few other siblings who 'cough' just wanted to indulge their siblings adoration of the King. Totally not here to meet Yusei. Soon the whole place seemed filled with mini duels between the kids wanting to impress Yusei, and Aki was engrossed in topics of school and classes that she didn't get during orientation.

But if things seemed busy or that maybe the energy was starting to die down, the grand arrival of Jack in all his ego made it feel ten times bigger than before. The kids swarmed him in awe, the uniqueness of the two Kings evident when in the same room with them. Jack taking a type of charge with his booming voice drowning out the kids. Soon they were performing little exhibition duels for the two kings. With either Jack or Yusei offering advice or compliments for the displays before them, though not all the kids were as interested in dueling as they were in just being able to sit in the presence of the kings.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Ruka glanced at the clock on the wall and gave a small squeak of alarm. "Everyone! Its getting late, won't your parents be upset if you don't come home soon?" She asked, calling out to the room only to be ignored due to the more impressive people holding center stage.

However; if she was worried that no one would notice her, she underestimated Jack. The teen's booming voice overpowered the duels going on as he spoke out, "it is time for the Kings to have their dinner!"

The kids blinked and looked up at him then at the clocks. Faces paled and anyone who wasn't in the middle of a duel raced to the door. Those who were in duels focused more on getting the job done rather than showing off. Rua watched disheartened that the fun was coming to an end, casting his glance around the room he saw Yusei stand up from his seat and walk to the door.

"I'll walk with you to the bus stop," Yusei informed the gathering kids, who lit up in excitement at the notion. Which helped get the kids gather up faster, while the teens helped round up their little squads and said their farewells. Everyone waved their goodbyes, and soon it was just Jack, Aki and Ruka while Yusei, with Rua bounding along, to walk the kids down.

Ruka sat next to Aki and quietly slumped herself against the older girl in weariness. Surprising Aki by doing so causing the older girl to lean back against the couch and keep herself as a type of pillow for Ruka. While Jack took a sip of the tea he had managed to get for his effort of keeping some control over the madness of all the kids running all over the place.

"So how is Carly? Misty wrote that she's back in town in her last letter," Aki asked, looking for something to strike up a conversation with Jack.

Jack inwardly sulked at Aki's question, wondering when did Aki have a chance to really meet Carly to start with. He stared at the bottom of his tea cup for a moment before opting out of getting more. Why did she even have to bring up such a random question when he had finally gotten himself to forget his lonely situation. Which was a good question, when 'had' Aki interacted with the reporter? "I didn't realize you two had met."

"A few times, she doesn't seem to remember her time as a Dark Signer, however; in Misty's last letter she mentioned that I should ask you," Aki explained, her focus turning inward at a memory. "Misty goes through Carly for a portion of her interviews as a means to help give Carly credibility..."

"WHAT?!" Jack bellowed out in shock, his eyes darting towards Aki as his voice jerked Ruka awake.

Even Aki seemed taken aback by the response before offering a calm, "Carly is here, in town. Didn't you know that?"

Apparently not, because Jack shot out of his seat, and began stormily marching his way to the door. Aki and Ruka watched in muted confusion as he strode off, reached for the door then stopping himself and returned to the couch. "Thank you for the tea and the invitation." Then he was off again towards the door and his ride.

He had to contact Misty, she was asking him through Aki, but if she was doing interviews with Carly than it was clear that she knew where the reporter 'was'. Were they having some type of stupid game just to toy with him? No, that wasn't Carly, and he wasn't going to ask Aki because he already looked foolish for even being surprised!

Why was she hiding from him? Because it 'had' to be hiding if he couldn't even find her at home, despite her not having changed her residence. He mounted up on his D-Wheel and let the elevator begin lowering him to the ground when the phone system activated on his ride.

"Jack."

Aki appeared on the screen with a concerned look on her face before giving a brief, "I apologize I asked Yusei to give me your number. Well I think you need to know something about Carly." When Jack replied with silence she continued, "Jack, she doesn't remember you."

"WHAT?!"

Jack's gaze re-fixed itself right on her face with an expression mixed with shock, outrage, with a slight touch of fear. He couldn't even find the words to express his feelings without making himself sound like an idiot.

"Misty didn't know, she caught sight of Carly during a press conference. She mentioned the Dark Signers and Carly had no clue, she doesn't even remember that she met you in person. Misty asked me to talk to Carly, so I could tell her some of what had been going on, on the other side of the Dark Signers. But I didn't know what happened between the two of you, Misty and I discussed it briefly, Misty thinks that Carly may be afraid that, by not remembering you properly, she'll disappoint you and you'll leave."

"That idiot."