Judgement of the World

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: No one but me.

A/N: This chapter feels a bit clunky... oh well..

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

"Yusei, a little bird told me that you've uncovered who your parents were," Martha began without preamble. The garage wasn't used much given the lack of vehicles save when Yusei was around and it rained. Instead it was more a storage place for various garden and mechanic tools, hung up neatly along the walls of the garage. The work benches were empty of clutter as was the tables, one of which Yusei was leaning against observing Martha. That patient look on his face as he waited to see what the topic of discussion was. Even his curiosity didn't make a dent in his self contained thinking, leaving a person always guessing regarding what was going on. Making her give a soft, 'this again' toned sigh as she shook her head.

"What's there left to say then?" He asked quietly folding his arms across his chest as a silent shield against the inquiry.

"I'm not going to pretend that I knew anything about your parents beyond what the news posted. Though I find it annoying that since you found out, you've allowed for this to keep hurting you. Not only that but you've known for 'years' apparently. How long are you going to let this stick in you?" Martha spoke plainly, watching as Yusei glanced away from her in that same stone faced manner. As the silence began to be drawn out she added, "an ETA before I die of old age would be nice."

Intelligence wasn't always answering the correct answers on a sheet of paper, or recalling formulas. Martha knew the intelligence was more than a number of right answers on a national tests. Some people had book smarts, others were emotionally wise, and others showed their wisdom by acknowledging their lack of knowledge. Yet Yusei was always going to be the unique case in her life, as she doubted she would ever meet anyone quite as smart as Fudo, Yusei. Even from the beginning he had grasped reading and math quickly, overtaking his fellow orphans. Any book he found that grabbed his attention tended to be the books of schools, he didn't really care for fairy tales or myths. But a book on quantum physics? Oh Yusei was all over that like white on rice.

Yusei was a virtual sponge of scientific information and finding out he had a biological background in science, highly scoffed at the whole 'nature or nurture' argument. Martha wouldn't have been surprised if people outside in Neo Domino just automatically assumed Yusei was illiterate and crude. Only to discover, if they gave him the chance, the incredible intelligence he had. Part of Yuseis' silence 'was' because he was so smart. Let the boy talk and he used words and ideas that were leaps ahead of anyone his own age level. His silence? Was so people around him didn't feel stupid and grow silent when talking to the duelist.

And if Yusei didn't want to talk about something, he could be counted on to keep his lips as zipped as a clam. Though realistically what kind of hairstyle would 'that' have looked like? "You were a 'baby' you couldn't stop what happened that day, so why hold yourself responsible?"

"I haven't done much to help the victims of that day. I've been in a gang, I've loitered around here, but really, what have I done 'save' avoid helping others?" Yusei calmly inquired as he held firm to his stoic silence.

"You saved all of us from a giant series of monsters, that I no longer remember but was told about?" Martha asked, in a tone oozing with stunned disbelief that he would have forgotten something he took part of. She watched him turn his attention to the floor off to a side and seemed unaffected by her words.

"That doesn't count, the Earthbound were from events that supposedly happened in a previous life from this one. What my father, what everyone thinks that my father did, is my situation now." He answered firmly, yet there was a moment. The moment when he said 'everyone thinks' that she saw a small flash of possibly what happened the day he learned the truth. What should have vindicated Yusei seemingly did nothing more than jam another thorn into his heart. "I have a duty to this city, to fix what my dads' project was forced to destroy. I also have a duty to Aki and the twins... I have things that need to be done, so I can't afford to just 'relax'." Suddenly Yusei stopped feeling the urge to speak as he saw this light go on behind Martha's eyes, and the smirk that was clearly growing on her face. His eyes narrowed and as the silence began to grow he felt the need to snap out, "I'm not practice running a family scenario!"

"A wife and two cute kids. Yusei this is your future and practice makes perfect!" Martha crooned out as she saw a crack in Yusei's defenses and decided it would be the better way to get him to fess up to his problems.

Yusei started to turn red, before his lips straightened out, "its not that simple with me being here. Besides, Rua had an accident yesterday at school," Yusei pointed.

"What? Oh! Is he ok?" Martha asked in concern, and pleased that if Yusei ended up a busy person he would still make time for his childs' well being.

"He blacked out during a duel at school and fell off the platform. He says the doctors could find nothing wrong, though it being 'Rua' I wouldn't be surprised if he withheld something from me. Though if Jack acquiesced to tell me to begin with, perhaps I would be more confident on what Rua reported." Yusei disclosed with a narrowing of his eyes as he seemed to recall something. But there was a touch of anger in his voice when he said Jacks' name and Martha decided it was necessary to prod into that as well.

"What did our little King do now?" Martha asked, Jack was decidedly different from Yusei, his flair for dramatics and ego was well documented. But more over, Jack could be pretty careless about things that didn't focus him. In the past, either he, or that Kiryu boy had been in charge, this was the first time that Yusei was in charge. So how did Yusei respond, and by all means it sounded like it was with anger, was going to be a new experience for both of them. But what part did Jack play in this?

"Apparently he's..." And Yusei stopped, and Martha saw Yusei struggle with his words, perhaps he hadn't settled on his source of anger. Though Martha expected there could be a conflict of interests in Yusei at the moment. "He told Aki not to tell me about what happened to Rua, then when learned that I knew about it, he automatically assumed Aki told me and started insulting her. Making remarks about her having 'flights of fancy' and passively accusing me of favoring her over everyone else."

Martha sighed and nodded as he told her, and heard the conflict in his voice. Knowing Yusei, Jack was probably the one in 'charge' of the group while Yusei was here. But Yusei saw Aki and the twins as a type of family unit for himself. A conflict between a leader and a father, and the inability to separate the two roles. "You can't control what h-" She began when Yusei snapped suddenly.

"Its my responsibility to control it! Dad blindly trusted the people around him and look at where we're at! I can't afford to lose control, or have someone decide they'll just do whatever they want and not tell me. What's next? Aki's looking to me to help her control her powers, and I can't even see half of what she can! Divine put trigger words in her and I have no clue what they are! What if just off hand someone uses it? She's going to start tearing up the city by herself, and be killed or spend the rest of her life in a jail! And here I sit, trapped on this little plot of land waiting for a bridge to be built!" He snatched the thick, brown work glove that he wore on his marked arm off and pulled back his sleeve showing the Dragon Head tattoo. "So long as this mark remains etched on my flesh, I refuse 'relax'."

Marching over Martha took Yusei by the shoulders and overpowered his resistance so that he faced her at least physically. "I want you to listen to me Yusei." She began sternly, her heart breaking as she heard his words though she kept her pain out of her voice. "You can 'not' be everywhere all at once, and you know that full well. Jack is in charge to look after things over there and if the situation is bad enough, I doubt he has such an ego anymore that he won't contact you. If it wasn't serious enough then it wasn't, you 'have' to trust him on this. Life is going to keep going and do what it wants whether you like it or not. Life is not a river that you can dam up and control, its an ocean and you either float through it and trust that even during a storm, you'll make it out safe. Or you sink because a boat can't be run if just by one person." When he refused to look directly at her, she grabbed his chin and forced his head to turn towards her.

She saw him locking down again, trying to force himself back under his unhealthy state of control. Knowing that his exclamation 'was' a form of control loss and that he would try to rein in his feelings. More over, how dangerous and unhealthy such emotional self control could be for a person like Yusei. "No. Yusei, don't shut me out on this, I know what I'm talking about. A leader has his duties yes, it doesn't mean you that you should keep all this to yourself. Even if you feel you can't talk to the others in your group. I'm here. At the very least I expect you to come here and talk to me about what is going on in your life. You may be old enough to live on your own, but that doesn't mean you're 'on' your own. Do you hear me?"

Yusei's head bobbed in a stubborn resistance to her attempt at reaching him, and she inwardly sighed as she realized he wasn't going to just let this out of his system. While he may have had inherited his fathers' scientific genius, such a complicated smart person, Fudo Yusei was. "I can't hear you Yusei, and I know I'm not going deaf." When he sighed and dropped his shoulders in annoyance yet stayed silent she grabbed his ear. "Yusei."

"Yes ma'am," Yusei grumbled in defeat knowing he didn't want his ear yanked off his head. For which he earned the early release of said ear and Martha looking quite pleased with herself.

"Good, now when's the baby?"

MOOD WHIPLASH OUT OF NOWHERE!

"What? The hell is wrong with you Martha?!" Yusei demanded as tried to take a step back only to have the work table dig into his spine. Reminding him that he was already up against a table and could go no further. Thus he began sliding away from her and along the table in alarm, while he turned an incredible shade of red.

"You're blushing and you show more signs that you are interested in that Aki girl than any other thing in your life. There 'will' be babies, and I want to hold and cuddle and kiss each and every one of them!" Martha mischievously stated as Yusei tucked his head down as though he would hide his head in the tall walls of his collar.

"I don't understand you sometimes!" He retorted defensively as she stood there smirking at him. Sure he thought about Aki, but that was mostly in trying to think through possible methods to help her with her powers. Besides she was a senators' daughter and he didn't even have a proper education, who was going to accept him even dating her? Which he 'was not' thinking about doing because he was busy with things.

"Yusei, she's a girl, you're a boy, its normal to be interested in someone and liking them. What's wrong with seeing if there's any potential interest between the two of you?" Martha asked good naturally as she settled back with her arms across her chest.

"She's a senators' daughter with the best of anything at her fingertips. I'm a marked criminal and former gang member from the wrong side of the tracks." Yusei answered with a straight face that dipped into a frown as Martha smacked herself in the face.

"So? I didn't raise you to be Japanese, I raised you kids to be American and Americans don't let stuff like that stop them!" She retorted in an amused frustration at this kids' thought process when it came to romance.

Yusei mentally waved a white flag as he sighed realizing and accepting there was no chance of him ever getting away from Martha's unending teasing. "Stop attempting to control everyones' lives around me because I can't. Stop blaming myself for what doesn't directly involve me, and make sure Aki never comes back here." Yusei ticked off each comment on his fingers while giving Martha a side way look.

While Martha nodded at each of his points as he covered what she wanted him to understand, only to stop at the last one and frown at him. "Yusei."

"You make this sound so easy," he argued faintly and watched as Martha shrugged.

"This is 'your' life Yusei. Stop treating it like a duel and that you have to plan for every possible attack. Live this life, enjoy it!" Martha felt her heart break as looked at Yusei. She had been in Japan for 'years' almost completely cut off from the rest of the media filled world. But that didn't stop her awareness of the sheer 'normality' of suicide. How Japan had little to do with mental health issues leaving the untreated suffering. Between Yuseis' self imposed guilt, and the fact that suicide could be seen honorable. Depression left untreated and unnoticed by three clueless guys, allowed to fester, made the fact that Yusei was still 'here' something of a miracle.

But he was Marked, and from Satellite, as much as a genius as he was, would people be willing to hear him out? Would they believe his abilities extended beyond his dueling skills and allow him to live and grow off their little island? It was annoying how she went from just trying to figure out what was in his head, to a concern that he may be taking on more than he could handle. Depression wasn't something she was ever taught back when she was in school. Which now was something she regretted, since she had learned after years of running an orphanage the default 'just pray' was a terribly insufficient answer for some problems.

"Are you still angry about Jack not coming straight to you? Or were you angry about his dismissive tone towards Aki?" Martha asked finally, watching as Yusei subtly eyed the door like he wanted an escape. "Because you know him, and despite the flaws of the past, he's bound to your group. So I don't see him intentionally failing in his tasks."

Which made sense, only it then cornered Yusei's anger into a strictly 'You like Aki' admission and he was hell bound before he admitted that automatically. But with her insight it made him realize he allowed his personal feelings to get in the way of his responsibilities to the group as a whole. Which made him want to punch a wall in mounting frustration. Trust Martha to make him become aware of that. "I'll apologize to Jack."

"No. You don't need to do that, if he was talking bad about Aki, you most certainly don't need to apologize. If he wants to be a 'king' so bad fine. But I don't want him to turn into one of those types who treat everyone else like commoners. He needs to learn to be mindful of his words and actions, not just spout off whatever he wants. And its a good thing you learn to defend your woman, because you have a tendency to let everyone talk around you and going with the flow." Martha stated watching as Yusei twitch at the phrase 'your woman' and blush. "Better that you throw a punch at someone who can take it and understand why you're trying to murder him."

Yusei mentally threw up the second white flag and stalked out of the garage and made a bee line for his ride. He strode out while pulling his work glove back on his hand, covering up his mark and more of his flesh from the outside world. While trying to figure out how he was going to deal with these pesky reactions he had to just the thought of Aki.

While Martha watched him go and tried to not worry about him. After all he had apparently dealt with the blow of his parents identity for years. True he had emotionally shut himself off from the world as a response, it didn't mean he stopped caring. She just had to hope and pray that Yusei could handle the responsibility of leadership while also navigating the nuances of a relationship. She watched as the kid she once looked after, pull out his helmet from under the seat of his D-Wheel.

Once upon a time he was just a small boy, laughing and running around and enjoying his life regardless of the lack of toys. Now he was burdened with a group that he was, apparently, obligated to look after. While dealing with hormones that he would have to learn how to deal with at the same time. Yusei drove off without a backwards glance, allowing Martha to lean against the door frame of the garage.

He was a brilliant intellectual who was now going out to find his place in the world and Martha had to hope she raised him right. And bolstered her flagging confidence with mixing and matching features as she tried to imagine Yusei and Aki's kids.