"So wait, why are we meeting with them again?" Kaoru sighs. He thinks I'm dragging him along because Shinji doesn't want me outside alone in my condition.
"Important business." I try and hurry despite my limp. I just want to sit down already.
"Okay, but who are they?"
"Takumi and Kenta, they're friends of mine." Kaoru asks far too many questions for my liking.
"Oh okay." He shuts up for a while. I imagine he's internalising all of his thoughts. His brow is furrowed ever so slightly. He probably suspects that something is up, heck I would. The park is even more deserted than it was nearly two weeks ago when I was here with Kaoru. There's a bite in the air. I should probably have gotten a scarf, but that's neither here nor there. It's the middle of December, what did I expect? Unfortunately, the way we walked to the park means we practically have to walk to the other side of the park to reach the gazebo where we're meeting Takumi and Kenta. They have their backs to us as we approach the gazebo. Kenta turns around to us before we even step foot on the steps.
"Oh dear gods, there's two of them." Kenta looks like he wants to crawl into a corner as he glances between Kaoru and I.
"What do you m-" Takumi starts to turn around. He freezes for a split second, with his gaze resting on us, before turning to Kenta. "I mean they look alike but-"
"No, it's not that." Kenta lifts his hand to cover the bottom half of his face. I hobble up the stairs to lean on one of the pillars in the gazebo. "Their auras, they're practically the same."
"What does that mean?" Kaoru looks at me in search of an answer.
"I don't know." Kenta answers for me. He stares at me like he's reading my aura. For a split second, I swear I see his eyes widen. He's realised something about me but what? It could be any number of things.
"Could that be why we can hear each other's thoughts?" Kaoru asks this question straight to Kenta, ignoring me completely. I think he's caught onto that fact that I have no idea what's happening to either me or him. Kenta manages to keep his face completely neutral.
"Could be. Unusual, considering most other telepaths can't hear your sister's thoughts at all."
"Telepaths?" Takumi's eyes narrow, he keeps his gaze firmly set on me. I can see the wheels in his head turning. He turns his back to us, looking out over the lake next to the gazebo. Kenta, Kaoru and I stay in place near the entrance of the gazebo. "Besides the point, what's the story? You disappeared for like three months." Takumi still hasn't turned back towards us. Kenta's brow furrows as he stares at Takumi's back.
"It's a long story." I sigh. Too long and too complicated.
"You always say that." Takumi finally turns around. He leans on the railings and crosses his arms.
"Believe me, I mean it." I can see from the corner of my eye that Kaoru is staring at me. Is he trying to talk to me? Does he think that I'm ignoring him?
"You better spill." Kenta's face hardens. "What did you think you were doing? Leaving Black Flag? Look at what you've done!" There's an edge to his voice that stings. "Everything's a mess and it's all your fault."
"What would you rather have me do?" Yesterday, I would have cowered away and admitted that he was right. "I couldn't have known that was going to happen. What? Not leave and be stuck in that hell forever?"
"Yes." I think Kenta's trying to drill a hole into my head with his glares. "What do you think about all of this?" He nods in Kaoru's general direction.
"I mean, I think she was right in what she did." At least Kaoru is on my side here. "But," not anymore, "I think she could have gone about it in a better way." I'm pretty sure that he's referring to me laughing when Raiden told me that he loved me, supposedly.
"There's no doubt that she could have gone about it in a better way." Kenta nods. He turns back to me. "You should have known better. You know what's Raiden like." I sigh.
"I didn't come out here for a lecture." I straighten up. I look down on Kenta who's a fair bit shorter than me.
"Calm down Kenta." Takumi finally chips in. "You know why she did it. Some things went wrong, this changes nothing. It's not going to stop our plan."
"What plan?" Kaoru rapidly looks between Takumi and I, in search of answers.
"What? You haven't told him yet?" Takumi raises an eyebrow.
"No, I can't have him blabbering on about how this is a bad idea to certain people." I feel like if Yusei ever found out about this, I'd be in for the lecture of a lifetime.
"What's going on, Yuuka?" There's a hint of fear in Kaoru's eyes. I don't know why he's getting so worked up about this.
"You know how I left Black Flag?"
"Yeah, you said that you're done with gangs."
"Well, I'm not."
"What?" Kaoru raises his voice. I look away from him and stare at the ripples in the lake. "You can't! I mean," he's in such disbelief that he starts tripping over his words, "you're not strong enough. You can barely walk without being in a heap-" Kaoru moves to keep talking but I interrupt him.
"I'm not doing anything now, dumbass. I know that." I turn my head back to Kaoru. "Nothing's going to happen until I leave Poppo Time." I glance at Takumi out of the corner of my eye, he seems oddly amused by all of this. I can't tell what Kenta's feeling without his aura, he just looks vaguely annoyed like usual.
"What's going to happen then?" The fear still lingers in his eyes.
"Well, it's simple." Takumi chimes in. "We're going to rid the City of gangs." It takes a couple of seconds for that to register in Kaoru's head.
"Wait what?" Kaoru slowly turns back to me.
"Exactly what he said." I gesture in the general direction of Takumi.
"No, not that. Why am I here?" I start playing with my fingers. Interlocking them, pulling them apart. Repeating this over and over again.
"Well, you're going to help us." I close my eyes.
"No! Nope, not doing it. No way." I give him a pleading look.
"Please, just listen." I don't want to make a big fuss over this. He sighs, I take this as a sign to continue. "As you know, we can hear other's thoughts. If you don't join us, it's going to be hard for both of us. I can't keep an eye on you. People might use you to get at me, I don't want that to happen." Kaoru stays quiet for a few seconds. The soft trickle of the drizzle that hits the roof of the gazebo is all that we can hear.
"Fine." Kaoru holds the bridge of his nose and exhales. "I'm only doing this so I can protect you. The minute you get hurt, we're leaving."
"Okay." I lie.
"Is that why you haven't been answering me? Just so you can hide your little secret?" His eyes twitch ever so slightly. He's clearly annoyed with me, heck, I'd be annoyed with me.
"No." Kenta pipes up; he's staring at me again. "There's something wrong with her. Her aura, it's different. You can't hear his thoughts, am I right?"
"That's right." I cover the bottom half of my face and stare at the ground. "Nothing works; I can't sense auras either."
"How is that possible?" Takumi looks wide-eyed at me.
"I don't know, ever since that duel-" I want to continue but I can't find the words.
"Wait, didn't you say that you didn't have control of your powers during that duel?" Kaoru moves closer towards me.
"What?" Surprise is etched into Kenta's face, a rarity. His eyes dart all over the place, as he tries to reason it out.
"Yes. During the duel, no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't control my powers."
"Do you know why?" Kaoru's face softens.
"I reckon it's to do with her emotions." Kenta is staring intently at my face, like he's working on a puzzle. "A lot has happened to you since I've last seen you, this could be the result of that."
"Probably." I blurt out, for the sake of giving a response. "Enough about me. What has happened since Raiden disappeared? Shinji's only told me so much."
"Right." Takumi pushes off the railings and stands up straight. "The fighting has calmed down a good bit now. There's only seven gangs left in the City, that includes us," Takumi vaguely gestures in Kenta's direction, "and Black Flag."
"I assume the other six got taken over." I slide my back down the pillar and sit on the floor of the gazebo.
"Right. Aside from us, only the Phantom Riders, Cross Syndicate, Red Serpents, The Jackals and Cardinal Dragons are left."
"Wait, you keep talking about us, are you in a different gang?" Kaoru seems to blurt out suddenly like he didn't filter his thoughts well enough. Kenta and Takumi stare at him like they're puzzled by this. I suppose they're still not used to Kaoru's endless questions. Takumi nods slowly, before continuing.
"We're called the Onyx Slicers by the way." Takumi says it nonchalantly, as if he's saying it out of obligation. He starts pacing back and forth as he explains. "After Raiden disappeared, all the gangs made attempts at getting more territory. Black Flag is now technically the smallest gang in the City. We managed to take down two gangs, which is good. It'll make our job a lot easier." Takumi looks back towards Kaoru and I, as if he expects questions. Neither of us speak.
"Our best bet is taking out The Jackals first." Kenta leans on the pillar opposite mine. "They're the smallest next to Black Flag. They're also the only gang that didn't take over another gang in the last week or so. Probably means that they're the weakest right now, and that they should be our first target."
"Sounds fair." Kaoru brings his hand up to his mouth. "We should wait until after the New Year. That'll mean Yuuka has more time to recover, and we can enjoy the holiday season too." Kenta looks surprised. His eyes narrow slightly. I wonder if he sees the benefits of Kaoru joining us now.
"You're nothing like your sister, you know that?"
It's the middle of the afternoon by the time I get back to Poppo Time. Kaoru walks me to the door and doesn't leave my side until the door is open.
"Okay, you can go now." I sigh.
"Try sending out your thoughts. We'll need it if our plan is going to work." I quickly gesture to him to shut up. The door is open and Yusei is probably still in the garage. I manage to get Kaoru to walk away. Only to be interrupted by someone else before I get in the door.
"Uh hi! Does Jack Atlas live here?" A rather nervous looking girl asks while pushing up her bottle cap glasses.
"That depends. Who are you exactly?" I'm trying to figure out if this girl is another rabid fangirl or someone that Jack actually knows.
"Oh!" She looks surprised, almost as if she forgot to introduce herself. "My name is Carly Nagisa. I'm friends with Jack. A couple of months ago, I suddenly woke up in the Satellite. I had no idea why, but I knew it had to do with Jack." Oh no. "I keep trying to find him, but he keeps running away from me. I want to know why he keeps doing that and why I have these strange dreams." I'm speechless. She was definitely a Dark Signer. Carly is the reason why Jack expected me to show up.
"I should introduce myself too. I'm Jack's friend Yuuka from the Satellite." I make a vague attempt at a wave. Carly throws out a friendly 'nice to meet you', which I mirror. "I'll go check if he's inside." I pop my head into the garage. Jack's D-Wheel is missing, I sigh. Yusei's head pops up from behind his D-Wheel again with a confused expression. "Is Jack gone?"
"Yeah, he left a while ago." I sigh again before returning to Carly.
"He's not actually in at the moment. Do you want me to take your number so I can give it to him?" Jack Atlas is a dead man when I get to him.
"Oh really? That would be great!" She seems so happy when I hand her my phone for her to put her number in. How could Jack run away from a girl as sweet as this? Could she be in love with him? The thought strikes me suddenly. It would really explain why she looks like a stray puppy looking for him. "Thank you so much, I'll see you later!" As soon as she hands me back my phone, she runs off, which leaves me more confused than anything. I shrug my shoulders and walk, finally, into the garage.
"What was that all about?" Yusei asks as I'm walking down the ramp.
"A friend of Jack's looking for him. Apparently he's been ignoring her for months."
"What's the name?" Crow calls down from the top of the stairs.
"Carly. Do you know her?" My eyes follow Crow as he walks down the stairs.
"Name's familiar." Crow crosses his arms.
"I think she was a Dark Signer. She doesn't seem to remember anything though." I can feel both of their gazes snapping towards me as I take a seat on the couch. "That's probably why he's avoiding her, I reckon he feels guilty in some way."
"What makes you think that?" Crows asks.
"I'd know about that sort of thing." That shuts him up.
"I think you're right." Yusei has moved back from the D-Wheel. "I remember when we were going after the Dark Signers, Jack seemed a bit off when it came to this Dark Signer. No one of us knew their name, I reckon that was Carly."
"Hmm," I put my hand up to my mouth, "I'll have to talk to Jack about this then." This is probably more serious than I imagined. I wonder if Jack has feelings for her. That would certainly explain his more drastic actions. I suppose that I'll find out eventually.
I take my boots and push the heels of them back against the couch. I curl up into a ball on the couch. From this angle, I can vaguely see Yusei tinker with his D-Wheel. I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open. I think I moved around a bit too much today, between getting to the park and back from here. I eventually end up dozing off. The last thing I remember before falling asleep is a jacket being laid over me.