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

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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Morning traffic, despite all the improvement to life due to the unlimited energy of Momentum, was a thing. Not because of the amount of vehicles on the road, because in reality there really wasn't all that much when compared to other large cities. Without bills to pay covering electric or gas, it left a lot of people with extra money in their pocket. Yusei had always figured the roads of Neo Domino would be crammed with cars. Now what people didn't have to work so hard to afford a life, the roads should have been filled. But then the conversation about low birth rates that he had with Aki would echo in his head. Not enough people.

Duelists could, and often did, ride through the town as almost an unexpected marketing ploy. One devised 'not' by the Kaibas, because Kaiba, Mokuba foresaw the inevitable problems that Godwins' plan would create. Even if there roads weren't a constant wash of the newest types of cars, there 'were' ways to cause traffic. Thus Yusei found himself quietly drumming his fingers against his forearms. Trapped behind vehicles and sourly staring ahead.

The roads of Neo Domino were deceptively split, when a duel wasn't in progress it appeared as a flat even road. Once a duel was activated, the auto pilot system in the D-Wheels would activate sensors that would raise up alerts so that people on the road could merge out. When the lane cleared off a barrier would next rise up. It was about as close to a perfect system as could be made for the city, unlike on Satellite where the whole splintered bit of land was free to use. With all its added road hazards, Yusei's scar would attest to.

Only the system wasn't perfect.

The dueling road was part of the whole highway system of Neo Domino, the only one of its kind. Thus why it was never implemented outside the city as the traffic could attest to. D-Wheels were programmed to go into autopilot when a duel began. Its sensors would keep it locked at a set speed and balanced so the duelist didn't have to focus on driving as well. But there was the ability to turn that system off.

Put the lane in the center was considered dangerous since if there was a wipe it would run the risk of tossing duelists into oncoming traffic. Same for putting it in the inner lane, with the outer lane considered the safest to get them out of the road. But it put the lane in conflict with people coming onto or off the road itself. The system would cause the D-Wheels to slow down or out right stop if there was an emergency. Or if there was clear signs that the riders were going to reach a zone at the same time as regular drivers.

A massive requirement given that riding duels included cards that increased the speed of the vehicle. Riding without the sensors on, relying on juggling both driving AND dueling took a special type of skill. It was dangerous and required people to treat it with the respect it deserved 'because' it was so dangerous.

The corpse was covered with a long sheet, but the way it laid with smears of blood indicated that they had gone flying only to get snapped in two when they impacted with a car and sent flying into the main traffic of the morning commute. Flopping and rolling along until they stopped. The D-Wheel was on its side, broken while the guy they had been dueling was sitting on the back of the ambulance.

Annoyance turned into muted horror as the other drivers saw the wreck, with glances now being shot at Yusei and his ride. Perhaps they couldn't see his Mark, but their expressions became one of silent disbelief and, touchingly maybe, concern. Not every day people saw the ugly side of dueling as they drove by the car with its splatters of blood and the now thoroughly traumatized driver.

"They turned OFF the system?" Crow asked in disbelief over the communication system. Jack, for his part, looked actively green, while Crow continued sputtering.

"The trajectory and signs of blood would tell me that they were still driving at normal highway speeds when the D-Wheel hit. Only witnessing the impact got the the second duelist to stop in time. His ride is shredded on its side, but he's alive." Yusei reported while Jack shook his head.

"Damn fools, it always happens," it was a strangely modest comment, subdued for Jack, but... 'Always'?

"Huh? This is 'normal'?" Crow asked dumbfounded as the clear sky behind his head showed he wasn't near any buildings yet.

Yusei tuned out their conversation, letting the pair converse with each other while traffic slowly moved forward. The sky was clear, what few clouds out were white, fluffy and distant. The temperature was dipping further down, but so far his clothes were enough to keep him warm. While packed away was the series of appliances that he had finished the day before. As Crow had cheerfully reminded him, part of a repairman's job was giving the items back to their owners.

Something he could do if he planned on being out all day looking for some random black car.

More over he was already approaching being late with those deliveries thanks to Yugi's stunt. But if he could develop a reputation, one that people trusted and he could bring Crow in on it to deliver to and from. It was certainly an option that in this part of the planning stage made a small business seem possible. With Yusei fixing and Crow delivering, the money stayed in house, whatever side money Yusei won from tournaments to supplement work. It was pure vanity to believe he could stay the Turbo Duel King forever.

A flicker of darkness caught at the corner of his eye caused him to put his thoughts on hold. Flitting between all the cars between him and the other side was a deep blue of some vehicle. By the time he saw it, only the hint of the color was caught, the make and model was already hidden save the last sliver of the trunk. Dark blue with chrome colored bumpers, but it wasn't black.

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Jack surveyed his surroundings with a near aristocratic air, a frown on his lips as the car Yusei was looking for failed to appear. The roads were quiet, the area itself relatively peaceful as everyone went about their roles as good, honest civilians of Neo Domino. It gave him peace and a chance to think about the reading that Carly had given him. As much as he wanted to think it just a card trick, that she got all the fairies to top deck like that.

Well to the average non card player, it might sound possibly, there was certainly enough people who knew of card tricks. Slight of hand tricks done by magicians made the possibility of top decking more likely. But Jack was a duelist, he stood there and 'watched' her shuffle, and knew how she loved her deck. Just Aki's ability to communicate with her fairies had elated her, and if she could get Aki to keep them manifested.

If...

'Whoever killed Aki isn't going to be thrilled when they meet 'me'. They dare to crush Carly's sense of self esteem and that must be punished!' he thought savagely as his gaze sharpened, but it wasn't just Carly who had been hurt. Yusei was not a social person like Crow either, but he didn't drift from their conversations. Chasing ghosts was the best that Jack could think to describe...

Only for his phone to ring bearing a number that he recognized begrudgingly.

"Jack, is something wrong?" Misty asked smoothly, her voice low and almost, gratingly teacherly.

"I demand to know about card reading," he demanded, his eyes glancing quickly at the model's face. It was still, barely little emotion, but Carly had said it was natural. A method to preserve 'perfection' by keeping it from stretching to emote. But it showed now, with the slightest dip of her brow and the confusion on her face.

"Has something happened?"

"She top decked all her fairies, with the most extremes falling out. Carly does 'not' shuffle so carelessly." He reported, trying to hold back the feeling in insecurity and worry from his voice. Even as he eased his D-Wheel to the side of the road so he could focus on her.

"Top decked?" Misty asked in confusion.

"Say you have a required number of cards you need to pull off a move. Top decking would allow you to get all the cards you need as your opening hand." Jack explained, partly begrudgingly, as having to explain was a time waster. But Misty wasn't a committed duelist and at least he was confident that Misty wouldn't doubt Carlys' sincere style of shuffling.

"I see, and all her fairies were on top..." Misty repeated for both clarification and a stalling tactic so that she could study Jack's face. Distance coupled with the visor crippled her own reading abilities, but there was a need for as much information as she could get. "Cards don't jump out of a deck unless there's extra meaning to them..."

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The traffic that held up Yusei, had also stalled out the bridge for Crow's commute to Neo Domino. But at least by talking to Yusei, he knew why traffic had stopped and could only shake his head at the fatal stupidity of those duelists. At least it was shaping up to be a nice day, near cloudless sky, bright sun. He had already checked for these seemingly illusive 'black cars' among the sea of trapped vehicles.

So he finally sat back while reaching for his deck indulging in the opportunity to study the illusive card.

"This card is going to be interesting, keep it with the other cards in your deck," Yugi began as he wrote. "It's not assigned yet, but not all spirits have a card of their own, and it seems this card belongs to one of them. Be patient, one day a Spirit will answer and use this blank to become a new card for you to use."

The card had gone missing from Crow's pocket that day where he had put it when they left. But coupled with the shock of seeing their elevator ride through the security cameras. Seeing the 'four' of them in the elevator, he had resigned his experience to whatever hallucination had happened. It was later that night he had found the white card among the rest of his deck.

Like the rest of the events, he didn't recall putting the card with his deck. It had been slipped into the chest pocket over his heart of his riding vest. While the message, that a spirit would 'find' this card, played through his mind.

Ruka had been able to explain the importance of the cards regarding interactions with Duel Spirits. Coupled with what Yugi said; somewhere, there was a spirit that would apparently 'move in' and use this card to become his new partner. He didn't know what to expect as he stared at the card, and his curiosity made for an interesting distraction. Would it be another bird? A warrior? It felt like it should have been a 'like calls to like' situation to Crow. But he wasn't a reincarnated Dragon like Yusei and the others. He was an outsider bearing the...

The thought curbed his enthusiasm as he brought his eyes to his Mark. Rua was meant to have the tail, but that damned night ensured the boy was too broken. So while he had a Mark, Crow wasn't one of them, just a stand in for Rua. Thus what type of partner would he find or would find him? In fact, given what Yusei had said, would the card last once Rua was better? Would it disappear with the Mark?

'Well, Yugi gave me this card, so I can only assume it will stick around, or maybe what ever spirit will until its over. Then it will vacate the card and I'll come across my own true partner?' It was a nice thought, and served to easily rekindle his imagination over the possibilities. At least until he got back into Neo Domino and start searching out this strange black car that Yusei was fixated on.

'Guess I can't blame Yusei though, I can count on a single finger the times I saw a black car since I started going to Neo Domino.' Well the number of times he had bothered paying attention to such things. Because who sat around counting cars? Though the rest of the story, including Yugi showing up and implying that Aki would show up at school... Now 'that' was mysterious and it served as his motivation to help out instead of working on the music box.

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He could see the bottle neck finally open up again in the distance. There were still some who slowed to see the accident, but they were slowly beginning to move forward. The ambulance finally pulled out from the accident, their sirens beginning to blare an alert for those in front of the vehicle. Though sitting on a computerized motorcycle ensured Yusei heard all the noise.

And winced.

The sharp, piercing clarion of the siren jabbed into his skull forcing his eyes to flicker nearly shut as he began to lightly twist the gas on his ride. The Security forces were pouring coke on the highway to wash off the blood, earning an internal shudder. 'Never drinking soda again...' He thought as he began to ride forward. Subtle vibrations from the ground finally managed to wake up what was beginning to be stiff and sore legs.

A weight sat unpleasantly in his gut as he drove, another dark colored car began to drive down with the on coming traffic. The confidence Yusei had about his awareness regarding his surroundings was being shredded. Years of living constantly under threat of kidnapping or murder should have ingrained itself strongly inside his mind. Yet he had counted well over 10 cars that were dark colored if not black. Drawing into question the exact color of the car he saw last night and if perhaps he was looking at ghosts.

Perhaps in the end Yugi just wanted to be kind to the twins after all.

Or perhaps it was Yusei's fault all together, he was too guarded against Yugi. Maybe the reason that Yugi was willing to visit Yusei. The 'real' reason, was because he recognized that same need in Yusei that the twins shared. What he had said about the past made it sound he was more here for whoever bore the burden of dealing with the EarthBound Gods. Clearly he had more reasons to find his way home than to visit the group.

'I was selfish. I didn't think about his situation and only thought about myself and my problems. Maybe if I tried to approach the topics with less distrust I'd get more out of the visits. Since there's no way for me to really help him get home.' In fact this was just 'one' Yugi among who knew how many. The other had found her way home, the Yugi he met was the only one he had left who bothered to lend any assistance outside of their world.

Lost to his guilt his eyes viewed the road ahead of him, giving the next black car only a passing flick of notice...

That the passenger side window was rolled down, with a single young woman sitting in the backseat. Her eyes were covered behind large visor that blocked his view, but her face was framed by long bangs of rose tinted auburn. A white top with some rose colored vest covering the top, with the car going slow enough that other cars were racing around them. Occasional honks of displeasure screamed in Yusei's mind to give this car his complete attention and yanking his focus onto it.

'Aki! That's Aki!' his mind screamed, shattering every thought he had and pushing the world away. As every fiber of his being focused on that one fact. Her eyes were covered yes, but it was her face otherwise, her hair when down from the clip and her clothes. By her side was a guy he didn't recognize, looking ahead as the car drove. In that instant when the car passed him Yusei and his view of the girl became more obscured. The window started rising up, blocking more of Yusei's view.

While road safety and the fact that he had just passed an accident with a fatality was pushed out of his mind. Jumping the center barrier was the only thing Yusei focused on, laws be damned. Revving up his D-Wheel he shot forward for the speed he would need to jump. While feverishly scanning the road for a sign of a gap. Something wide enough for him to safely make the job without scaring some poor driver.

More because he couldn't afford to be hit and go flying than because his brain was still registering some concept of civilian safety. All that mattered in that moment was Aki, and the car began to speed away.