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

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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The buildings lorded over Yusei's head as he walked among the growing masses, people were slowly being released from work. Flowing out into the city sidewalks. Despite trying to give him some room; due to his criminal mark, eventually they were forced to crowd in on him. All around him he could see a literal sea of dark haired men and women moving about. Glimpses of the occasional blond would flash into his vision as lightning in the night sky.

It wasn't black, brown, or blond that had compelled him to leave Crow, it was rose tinted auburn that held his fixation. Off in the distance where he caught the glimpse of that hair color among the throng of people, despite knowing that Aki was dead. It was a weakness that he felt ashamed of, as it pulled at his heart to get off Crows' ride and pursue the color. Irrational, illogical reactions to a visual stimuli that was the image of Aki in the distance.

He moved as quickly as he dared, not wishing to push people out of his way or draw unwelcome attention to himself. Yet he feared losing that spot of color from his sight, even if he didn't want to admit the fear. The color danced about, sometimes on the left of his vision other times on his right. His mind said it couldn't be Aki, she was dead and he saw the report. His heart said it was Aki, and despite his mind normally having a firm hold on his bearing...

Here he was.

The soft voices of multiple conversations and foot steps rolled into a single sound around him. A soft white noise that both reinforced that he was surrounded by people and utterly alone. The rare honk of a car horn or blared out music punctuated his isolation as much as the crack of thunder during a rain storm. Turning that soft rose petal themed color in the distance into a important spot of hope. 'Aki's not alive. I'm not trying to prove she is, I'm just trying to prove she isn't.' He told himself stubbornly.

'But what if she is?' was a whisper that kept playing in the back of his mind. A gadfly that kept buzzing incessantly, almost an audible sound. Stinging him with the thought, the chance and if he squandered it... But if it 'was' her wouldn't she return to the group? Wouldn't it be better to wait with the twins to see if she showed up on her own?

'If it is her, someone tried to fake her death. So why would she be here and not with us? Why wouldn't she contact us?' he was left wondering as he watched the person he had been tailing. She had elevated herself by climbing a series of stairs up to an apartment building. But now that he could see her profile, his heart plummeted in disappointment. The features weren't right, the angles and shape were off. Even her clothes were wrong now that he could see them properly, the glimpses of white he had caught. Nothing more than some scarf draped over her neck and not the collar of a button on blouse.

She walked into the building, not even a backwards glance. While leaving Yusei standing on the sidewalk, still as stone in a river of people. Sound and motion continued to ebb and flow about him. Alone again. That weight in his stomach returned, with a humiliatingly bitter taste in the back of his mouth. Foolish to believe. Facts were facts and Aki was...

'Not here. Not in public.' Yusei thought to himself with grim determination as he turned his steps towards the school. If he put a little effort in, he could meet up with the twins and walk them home. Unaware of how the emotions rippled across his own facade, turning cold apathy into something darker. Dangerous.

People made a stronger effort to step out of his way after a glance at him. Apprehension sending off ripples into the river of people to move. A few people pulled out their cellphones with quiet urgency as they placed calls to Security, reporting the dangerous marked criminal walking the streets of Neo Domino.

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The Security motorbike rolled to a stop next to the side walk where Yusei was. It wasn't hard to find the duelist, the space everyone was affording him was obvious. Even from the street. It was enough to make Ushio shake his head slightly as he pulled off his helmet.

"Oi! Fudo!"

Yusei paused at the sound of his name before looking towards the road where he heard it called from. The top of Ushio's head could be seen amid the crowd and the implication was enough to make Yusei roll his eyes in annoyance. But Ushio 'was' a Security officer, so he begrudgingly turned his steps towards the side of the road to meet up with the man.

"I don't know what happened to put you in so much a mood. But I think you need to adjust it a bit. You literally are scaring people into calling Security about you," Ushio stated without preamble and watched as the shock colored the young duelists features.

"What?" Yusei replied even as he turned around to look at the people around him. 'Did I look dangerous?'

"You heard me. Got a call back from the station that there was a 'young criminal looking to start a fight'." Ushio watched as Yusei covered the side of his face with the mark even as he gave a disgruntled sigh.

"It wouldn't have been so bad if you hadn't marked me," Yusei pointed out soured in tone and glare.

"You wouldn't have had that mark if you hadn't decided that it was worth it to get back a bit of cardboard," Ushio retorted readily. "Now you going to settle that angst down? Or at least tell me 'why' you're walking around like you want to start a brawl?"

'Its none of your concern' was the first thing Yusei wanted to retorted with. But he bit his tongue, not out of fear rather... "I wasted my time following a bad lead."

"Lead?" Ushio repeated with a frown on his face. He leaned back from his bike, gazing down at Yusei's shorter stature. Kid wasn't a cop or a cop wannabe, there wasn't anything that came to mind... 'Shit...' "Yusei... just because a lead doesn't work out in the end. Doesn't mean its a waste of time..."

"Is that something that a Security officer should say?" Yusei asked coldly at the invasive comment.

"To a not officer? Yeah. Its not like the station hasn't heard about Senator Izayoi's daughter," he watched as Yusei clenched his fists in response and raised an eyebrow. 'Really, you want to throw a punch on the side of the street?' "Look, leads are a chance, they don't always pan out. But that doesn't mean you rage over it and stalk down the streets looking for someone to punch."

"I'm not. I'm just going to go and walk the twins home when school lets out," Yusei answered. 'He has a point, was I really projecting that much anger?'

"Well with a glare like the one you were using. They don't have to worry about being accosted by anyone," Ushio agreed with an amused grin on his face.

"Sorry, I..." Yusei began when Ushio shook his head and waved him off.

"Yeah, just be glad that it was me that got dispatched. Otherwise you'd probably end up with some other well intention officer who likes the sound of their own voice," the officer replied with a hearty laugh. Only to notice that Yusei seemed rather fixed on studying him, sure the aggression had been subdued but... "Something on my face?"

"Ushio... You're about..." Yusei began, paused into silence as though thinking something through then resumed. "Did you by any chance go to school with Yugi... The original Duel King?"

The name was a call back to the past, when Ushio had a mental breakdown that resulted in him being under house arrest. Always strange that he could remember school, but when it came to the breakdown it only happened when he thought about Yugi. "I uh... Yeah we went to school together. Why?"

'So Yugi would be about Ushio's age... only he's still a teenager, a little older than me...' Yusei was struck by that realization. Yugi and whoever else was with him had been cut off from their world. But there would have been people left behind. People who waited for them to come back as Kaiba had. Yet Yusei didn't have much in the way of interactions with Kaiba. Ushio on the other hand was a vastly different story. "I just... was curious about the guy who started the whole 'King of Games' title..."

"Well that's a bit of a shift in thought... But hey if it keeps me from putting you in cuffs!" Ushio replied cheerfully. Though that cheer quickly died into quiet embarrassment. "I was a different man back then. Thing is I'm right now on the clock and since this is resolved I should get back to the office. But if you're serious about hearing those stories, I can call you later when I get off work."

"I don't know what the twins will be doing. I might not be near the phone but if I am..." Yusei answered with a slight nod. 'Nice discreet way to blow him off if there ever was one.'

"Well its good to be a productive member of society. Those marks aren't real helpful from getting over past mistakes. But I'm sure you'll be fine!" Ushio remarked before he righted his ride and pulled out to return to the station.

Leaving Yusei on the side of the road watching as the man rode away leaving Yusei with his thoughts. 'Yugi should be as old as him. Did he have a girlfriend? Jounouchi is dead in this reality but what if he's not in Yugi's reality? How many people are left that were close to Yugi and still alive?'

'You could die in the next five days', was what Yugi had said. Perhaps he spoke from experience. It was doubtful that Yugi knew he was about to be engaged in an act that would remove him from the world for over a decade. Or perhaps he knew it was a possibility but weighed it as a risk worth taking. In that line of thought, perhaps that was why Yugi had started pulling that 'son' business.

Perhaps on that day he needed a father figure and didn't have it. So Yugi figured Yusei did and tried to step in... Maybe that was all Yugi was trying to do for Yusei and the other Dragons. While the thought was strangely comforting and understandable. 'I don't think he really can make that call. He said he's outside of time, he hasn't aged. Meaning that he's still the same 18 or 19 year old he was when he left. Life experiences don't happen just because time passes, it comes from living life. Which he hasn't, he's been standing outside looking in.'

But how would he establish ground rules with a guy who had been instrumental in forming the Dragons? Who could literally walk down a river and see Yusei as he was five thousand years ago as well as everyone else? Ushio was out of Yusei's sight as it finally hit the duelist as he stood on the side of the rode. Out of no where with enough force to actually make him chuckle, driving those dark clouds back if only for a moment.

'Yugi is doing things just like me, observe without involvement, process the situation logically to find a solution. Its what I do.' Yusei thought to himself as the laughter slowly died down into a chuckle. 'What a way to be called out...'

The school was only a few blocks away. He just had to go and wait by the gate until they were unlocked and he could go in. Yusei turned his steps towards the school once more, the darkness in his heart lightened by the encounter. It made the walk to the school less oppressive, even the pills didn't seem so terrible now. There was no logical need to explain everything to Rua, so with that in mind. Yusei could imagine that Yugi only told them about the pills in the most strictest of senses.

Air cleared of his own dark thoughts Yusei didn't inspire anymore fear among the rest of the citizens of Neo Domino. While in the distance he could see the school finally as his legs started to ache from all the walking it took to get there. 'I've been riding too much. I need to schedule some time in the gym to fix that. I shouldn't hurt from just walking,' he thought in irritation at the heated pain in his legs.

Not even all that long in Neo Domino and already he was turning soft.

In the distance he could see the gates of the school open and a lone elegant lined car pull out. Black with silver trim and clearly kept up to look its best, it turned towards his direction. It was far too late for Kaiba to be going to school, and strange for him to leave early. Unless the young boy had fallen ill. So far the twins hadn't made it sound like they had pulled the kid into their social circle.

Though wouldn't a Kaiba ride in a limo? This wasn't one, a nice car yes, but it was just a normal four door. Was it Aki's parents? Would there be a reason for them to visit the school now that there was confirmation to their daughters' fate? Maybe they went to personally meet the students involved in that ill fated trip. He wouldn't hide from the passing vehicle, if it 'was' Aki's parents and they wanted to stop to talk to him. Even if he internally shied away from such a confrontation, he would stand his ground.

So he stood there watching as the vehicle respected the speed limits in place for the students safety. The windows were tinted making seeing the driver difficult as the person was less detailed. The sun didn't glint off a wax job, but the car was clean enough that Yusei could see his own reflection. While the windows revealed next to nothing of the interior as the driver passed by while the back passenger window was down.

A black haired guy about Yusei's age was relaxing in the back and looking straight ahead, a faint smirk on his lips. The window started rolling up, but it wasn't the Izayoi's in the back seat and as far as Yusei cared the car no longer mattered. There was no Kaiba's only a passing thought reminding Yusei that while a kid, Kaiba 'was' Vice President to the company. Serving under his father might mean that he would have to leave from time to time. Or inversely needed paperwork brought to him, so why the smirk?

He shoved his hands into his pants pockets and resumed his walk, his mood soured once more. Ryu seemed a friendly enough person professionally and the twins probably would have liked to get to know him better. So his own paranoid thoughts made him worry over that smirk. The gates were closed up again as he walked, leaving him outside from the school grounds.

But even as he reached the gates the bell went off, sounding that the school day was over. The students started leaving, and by now even the glamour of Yusei's presence had lost some of its shine. He wasn't mobbed like before, though he received a good many greetings from the students. Greetings that he replied with nods or brief waves in response until he saw Bob and Tenpei finally step out of the school. Because of Crow, he knew that Patty wasn't at school today, yet the pair stepped out alone, the twins not in their company. Which 'was' out of the ordinary to Yusei.

The pair caught sight of him as well, and their expressions of quiet embarrassment caused Yusei to frown slightly.

"Uh looking for the twins huh?" Bob called out once they were in ear shot of the elder teen and earning a nod in answer. Bob looked down, fidgeting as he did so, he looked over at Tenpei hoping his friend had an answer.

"They got in trouble. They have to stay after school as punishment," Tenpei answered with a slight, helpless sort of gesture with his hands. He gestured for Yusei to come closer, which Yusei obliged by bending down in this little conspirator style huddle. "Ruka said she 'saw' Aki. But she told us she felt it more than saw it. She tried to go and well..."

"Long story short, she actually kinda made some noise about it and the Vice Principle put her in detention. And we all know Rua, he reacted to 'that' and so now he's there too," Bob added.

Yusei blinked in surprise, his own Mark didn't give him any sense that he was near Aki, though given that Ruka would have been in the same building. Somehow the distance issue felt weak as a reason though. "Thanks, do you know where I would go to find them? Even if I can't walk them home yet. I can wait."

"Oh just go to the office, we'll help you out," Tenpei answered easily turning to guide Yusei into the school.

"You need a pass if you're going to walk about the school, not being a student and all," Bob explained as he walked along.

School uniforms everywhere, no individuality for anyone and yet Yusei couldn't see himself in these outfits. He wanted to go to school like everyone else, but those uniforms... 'Hair like this wasn't meant for conformity I suppose.'

It was a frivolous thought, but it kept the darker one at bay lest he scare the office from letting him see the twins. They were already turned off by his Mark enough that it took Aki's presence to allow him on the grounds the first time after all. But Ruka sensed Aki? She was the most spirit sensitive of all of them, and she 'sensed' Aki?