Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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"So this is Neo Domino."

Crow leaned back in the saddle of his D-Wheel, looking about the apartment complex that Yusei had directed him to. He sat in awe of how clean the streets and buildings were as Yusei dismounted his own D-Wheel. Their leader walked over and as he passed by gave Crow a fist bump of greeting while he kept walking. The red head looked around one last time before he hurriedly took off his helmet and stored it. There was no requirement for him to go as well, but he was curious about how Carly was doing now that she was back home. Being told was vastly different than seeing after all.

The pair entered the complex and Crow followed Yusei's lead to the elevator, the place looking nice with some comfy, albeit worn, couches and chairs being the first things he saw. Showing that despite how some would have liked to think of it, Neo Domino wasn't purely a place of decadence and riches. Which was great, made Crow feel less like he was going to smear something if he touched it with his Satellite raised self.

"The twins are already here, I hope you don't mind if you have to carry one of them," Yusei commented as the elevator lifted them higher.

"Come on Yusei, this is 'me' we're talking about, I'm fine with it," Crow admonished with a light hearted laugh. "Might as well get the kids to know me better after all," he pointed out sticking out his Marked arm and flexing his fingers exposing a fraction more of the Mark than was normally visible.

Unknowingly reminding Yusei of the issue regarding Marks and Rua as he stood there when the sound of a 'ding' interrupted them. The doors slid open to Carly's floor letting Yusei lead his fellow Dragon out into the hallway. If Crow was carrying one of the twins, he could carry the other, freeing up Carly's car for the figurines... He wasn't sure how Crow would react when he saw how absolutely prepared Carly was for the transport.

'Neurotic' was a great word for Carly when it came to those things. Given the costs she spent and the amount of outrage from out of KaibaCorp really blew his mind. It was over the top emotional, just irrational that a company could react in such a manner at the sight of some figurines. Making it hard to believe that it was 'just' the figurines, Kaiba was far and away too aware of the world around him. He knew about Rua, and his history with the Original King of Games made Yusei question if there 'was' something about those figurines.

What happened all those years ago when the Original King went into hiding?

Yusei knocked on the door out of manners before opening the door, after all they knew he was here and bringing Crow up. The interior of the apartment was no different than the last time he saw it, only with a rather spacious box resting on the couch, closed and taped shut with... An overly abundant amount of tape and the twins were sitting next to it like matching bookends of 'Help' signs.

They smiled at Yusei with tight lipped devotion while their eyes spoke of concern over a certain woman's obsession. Sliding over to the red head and it woke them up from their concern to wave at their fellow Dragon.

"Glad to see you two, with that much tape, I'd expect that one of you was in the box," Crow joked as he took in all the figurines, Jack, the numerous cardboard rolls that used to hold tape on them. Seriously were they going to bring this off kilter ball of tape and cardboard to a company and... and what? Take a chainsaw to it just to open the box and show what was inside?

Rua suddenly looked embarrassed and Ruka turned to look at her twin with this hooded 'Well actually, now that you mention it', expression on her face.

"What? They're so cool and I just wanted a peak! It's not like I climbed in the box!" Rua retorted defensively even though he didn't see the look his sister was giving him. He just knew, it's what sisters did...

Yusei looked over at Jack, who was sitting in a chair off to himself, angled just so that he could see the twins easily. Jack caught sight of the look he was given and between the two of them, Yusei could read the message Jack wanted to say. 'Yeah, Rua nearly got thrown into the box with the figurines before it was sealed.'...

Carly...

She appeared briefly, dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a blue and white stripped shirt and a bright yellow vest. She had a brush in one hand and no glasses on her face and that was probably the problem as she stopped and began wide eyed scanning the room until she zeroed in on the dark blob that was 'probably' Yusei. "Yusei is that you?"

"Yes Carly, and Crow is here too," he replied moving to the side so Carly could see more of Crow's difference in colors. The tans, browns and shock of red that she could use as a visual marker until she put back on her glasses.

"Oh! Welcome to my place!" Carly beamed as she walked forward her eyes fixed on the blur that was Crow.

For which he answered with a big grin, she was far and away different than he recalled when he fished her out of the ocean. It was pretty funny that both times he met her, she wasn't wearing her glasses, despite that though, she was much more at ease and cheerful right now. Though that might have been due in large part to her being safe in her own apartment with people she knew around her. Rather than nearly being pulled under by the ocean waves after taking a nasty spill.

"Help yourself to anything in the kitchen Crow! I'll be ready as... soon as I find my glasses," Carly answered with an awkward grin as she gestured to the kitchen and swept her hand towards the way she had come.

"Again? How did you lose your glasses this time?" Crow chuckled as he walked across the room, glancing at Jack who, clueless, shrugged a silent answer.

"Ahh yeah, I tripped and they fell off my face, it happens, I'll find them soon!" Carly answered before she turned and amazingly made her way back to where ever without crashing into things. Japanese translation, this was so much of a normal occurrence for her that she could walk through her place blind safely.

Crow grinned cheerfully and took advantage of the offer to find himself a cup of water, but that didn't quiet his good natured chatty self. "So Ruka, ever ride on a D-Wheel?"

"Why does Ruka get to ride on your D-Wheel?" Rua pouted crossing his arms and puffing out his cheeks.

"Ladies first," Crow answered both smartly and cheerfully before drinking down the water he had just gotten.

"But she's no la..." Rua suddenly cut himself off, shot his sister a desperate look before turning to look at Yusei in a forced cheerfulness while Ruka stared daggers at him. "Does that mean I get to ride with you Big Brother?"

"Yes," Yusei answered appreciating Crow's clever way of ensuring that Ruka was on a traditional D-Wheel when they rode out. Masking it as a 'first time ride' without drawing attention to the concern of her losing her grip if she rode with Yusei. Even if he hadn't spent hours on the internet researching her medicinal cocktail like Yusei had.

While Crow could be heard choking on his laugh as he tried not to spew water everywhere.

"Ne, big brother Crow, are you excited to go see KaibaCorp too?" Rua asked, trying to cool off the daggers in his sisters' gaze. He had a backpack sitting on the floor next to his legs, loaded with autograph books from Tenpei and the rest of the gang. Despite having lived in Neo Domino for their whole lives, Rua and his sister never went to KaibaCorp. There was this small flicker of hope that they might run into a cool person or get access to see some new special tech created by Kaiba.

"Sure, I'm going to be touring as much of Neo Domino that I can," Crow answered while he put the cup in the sink and joined the rest of the group in the living room. "Why? Wanna come? I could always use a guide or two."

Rua's eyes lit up with excitement and the inclusion of 'two' helped ease Ruka fully out of her offended air as she brightened at the suggestion. "Sure!"

"Just make sure people don't think you kidnapped them," Jack retorted, a snarky reminder of the marks on Crow's face. "At this rate with the twins always around Yusei."

"Yeah, but that's no problem, with us around!" Rua countered with a grumpy 'humph', "Marks are stupid if they never let you move on from whatever you did."

"Kids' got a point," Crow admitted before getting distracted by a host of figurines that were in a display case. "Wow."

"Cool huh? But actually, only Neo Domino brought back marking people's faces," Carly explained as she came back into the room, glasses perched once again on her nose. "Normally now people who 'have' tattoos are assumed to be... oh... oooohhhh..." Carly's voice drifted as her education continued to remind her the history of tattoos in Japan. But it wasn't so much the marks on Yusei or Crow's faces that got her quiet. Rather it was the fact that there were five individuals who bore marks on their arms. Sure Yusei and Crow had Marks on their faces that involved past crimes. But Carly never really thought about the fact that Aki and Ruka had marks on their arms which the uninformed could easily see as signs of a tribal tattoo and thus gang or criminal activity. Granted through her affiliation with Divine, Aki's tattoo would make sense if people knew her whole history.

But Ruka?

She would have to keep her arm covered up and even then, being around gang members must not have looked right.

"Yeah cool, did you paint these all yourself?" Crow asked, seemingly missing Carly's slip up, or maybe wanted to not continue her embarrassment.

"Sure did!"

"Aki really isn't coming?" Jack finally asked, looking at the door and wondering where the Rose Duelist was. Yusei, through the twins, had already informed them that she was busy, but it still felt weird to see Yusei without her. She even 'felt' absent from the group, the energy from the other three was a comforting warmth to Jack. It brought to mind back at the orphanage when they were all together as a family. Aki's absence felt strange, like anxiety waiting for her to return, but not...

"Asuka needs closure about her brother, hopefully they will find the portals to the Spirit World and we can help them tomorrow." Yusei stated, while the twins nodded, while their words caught Crow and Carly's attention.

"Wait... there are ways to go to the Duel Spirit world?" Carly asked, blinking in surprise at the thought and encouraged by the idea. Maybe she could go somewhere and be able to see her Spirits without having to pester Aki!

"Apparently, but they are semi random and even if you end up there, if you don't have a natural ability, or taught one apparently, to see them you wouldn't see them still," Yusei explained calmly as he leaned against the wall near the door.

"Ahh booo..." Rua pouted out loud while Carly followed suit, unthinkingly mirroring his arms cross protested posture.

"Wait... 'taught'? So its possible to be taught to see Duel Spirits?" Carly asked in a bid for clarification. Which turned into jubilation as Yusei gave an indifferent shrug, meaning that once... once... no wait... oh... Aki probably didn't know how so it wasn't like Carly could get Aki to teach her... So who would she get to teach her the art of seeing Duel Spirits?

She turned to look at the box holding all those figurines in, well the box with boxes within in, stuffed with towels. As well as anything and everything she could find that could serve to protect and cushion her precious figurines. Reminding her just why she had been a nervous wreck as she would be driving her collection to KaibaCorp. Granted Jack thought it was stupid, probably so did everyone else, but Carly felt this was something that had to be done on principle.

Kaiba had made it clear that he viewed these figurines as fake, yet how was that possible? The reporter part of her needed to know the story behind these figurines, the hows and why's she was able to get a set of figurines that should not exist. Not only those, but the cards that suggested that there were 'higher' tier figurines based on the three Egyptian Gods. She had assumed she had been in contact 'with' the original king of Games, or at least a secretary.

But if she was going to find out about anything it meant going to KaibaCorp and talking to the man himself.

Perhaps bringing the figurines she had was a bit much, but she felt that if she could show him the physical copies it would help. He clearly knew where the original sets were sold off to, if he somehow thought or convinced himself that he was looking at some type of manipulated photos it would prove false. Yet for all that she 'knew' and for as loud as her investigative instincts were about this story. She would have been lying to deny the fear in her.

It wasn't excitement to go and try to face down the CEO of KaibaCorp for a story. A story that she honestly had no interest in trying to sell to her boss or anyone. 'I doubt anyone would even believe it if I tried to get it printed...' She thought to herself as she went to collect her cards, leaving the conversational noise of the group behind. 'Yugi was recorded as having 'gone on vacation' for months, until people stopped asking... The world moved on and he's never returned. The world just thought he was in hiding, turning recluse. After all it wasn't as though he could return to the game shop his grandfather owned. That had been left in the hands of the original Duel Queen, Valentine, Mai and her boyfriend.'

Carly walked into the room with her paperwork and picked up the stack of cards she had collected over the years of collecting the figurines. Her eyes roaming over the words before her without processing them in her mind. 'But its impossible to talk to her now, they died in the Zero Reverse incident... In fact all of Yugi's old friends from that time seemed to have disappeared or moved on out of the city, save Lord Kaiba. Even Jounouchi hasn't been seen active in the dueling scene for over a year...'

Leaving only the CEO of Kaiba Corp and she had already learned the hard way that he was a man 'not' to be messed with. After Aki had managed to appease Kaiba, because Carly sure couldn't after the shock and accusations, Carly had been forced to deal with the aftermath from her boss, the questions from her parents and a number of her associates. There had been no easy way to laugh off having her birth records, or education revoked suddenly. Leaving her parents now with the worry that somehow Carly had become entangled in some illegal business.

She slipped the cards into her purse as she took a deep breath. 'I have to do this, I have to walk into that Dragon's den and show I'm an honest reporter. I have to learn the reason why I would be sent these if they were fake. But to learn 'that' I have to learn the importance of them to Lord Kaiba.'

"I wish Misty or Aki were here..." She whimpered as she turned and walked out the room. Jack was wonderful, in fact the bulk of the Dragons were awesome and she felt pretty relieved by their presence. But they were 'guys' and she needed some girl friends around her, or to be more concise she needed people who were accepted by more than just the dueling community. A model and a senator's daughter would be easily able to get over the first few hurdles in the effort to reach Lord Kaiba. But while she loved Jack and Yusei 'was' the current Turbo Duel King, Yusei and Crow were both marked criminals.

Lord Kaiba's standards were impeccable, would he even allow them to enter the building without being escorted out unheard? Would he tolerate Carly's attempt to see him given what had happened before? She needed to know about the figurines, while at the same time a way to not get Jack to try something stupid. She loved the big lug, but the more she got to know the man behind the 'King' facade the more she realized how much they depended on each other. He had the confidence that she sorely lacked, while she had the knowledge he equally lacked.

Only when he was out of his depths, and she couldn't think of a solution he seemingly defaulted into charging in like a bull. Asking for Yusei and the others hadn't been out of her inept nature or the crowded state of her car. Having someone that Jack respected, or at least acknowledged as leader, meant that he was less likely to do something bullish and get them both in jail.