Spinning. The spinning needle sits above me, moving ever closer. The features appear more clearly now. I start making blocks hanging down from it. Chunks of concrete start falling. Shards of glass do too. Windows. Flakes of paint come off the concrete. Walls. Metal frames fall making obscure shapes on the ground. Construction. Buildings, I say to myself. The center of it spins in a different direction. Rainbow light shines down on me. I start at it. Momentum. Yusei's mangled body appears before me for a split second. It disappears before I have time to scream.
"Yuuka!"
A vulture squacks in the background. Great, black wings start forming a circle around me. Magenta lines glow, forming patterns. I turn around. The Earthbound Immortal stares right at me. It lets out an earth shattering noise before lowering its head to me.
"Yuuka!"
The sensation of being doused in water is enough to knock me onto the ground. Kaoru hovers over me.
"I was meditating!" I shout back at him. He hands me my phone while I'm still lying on the ground.
"It's been ringing for hours. Please answer it." Kaoru's eyebrows are furrowed, his hair is a mess. Final year is really getting to him. It starts ringing again. He shoves it into my head, wrapping my fingers around it before storming out my bedroom door, slamming it shut. I look at the screen. Aki, huh.
"Hey." I greet her pretty casually.
"Why weren't you answering your phone?" She's practically screaming down the phone.
"I was meditating." I stare at the ceiling, I hear her sigh deeply.
"We were so worried."
"Why would you be worried about me?" I say that, but they have more than enough reasons. I close my eyes again. Despite being soaking wet, I'm actually quite comfortable on the floor.
"Yusei got kidnapped this morning." That is enough to make me jump up.
"What? Who? When? Why? What happened? Where is he now?" I start pacing around the room. I move my hands from my hair to start getting dressed, only to take a clump of hair with it. As soon as I tell Yusei about Team Liberation, he gets kidnapped. Whose ass do I have to kick? I go to list off the remaining gangs. Then I realise that only the Cardinal Dragons are left.
"He got kidnapping by people trying to recruit him for the WRGP." I sigh in relief. I'm safe, for now. "We're lucky that I got to him in time." She sighs next.
"He's okay?" I tentatively ask.
"He's okay." Aki confirms. I slowly lower myself onto my bed and exhale. It takes a few seconds for the shock to get out of my system. "Also, Yuuka?" Aki says after an extended pause.
"Yeah?"
"I'm thinking of becoming a D-Wheeler." I don't say anything for a few seconds. It comes so out of left field that I never would have expected it. Aki never really seemed interested in the idea of Riding Duels. Understandable as the ability to hurt your opponents isn't actually wanted when you're going insanely fast.
"Really?" I say, not really sure what to think of it. I mean, Aki being a Turbo Duelist would be neat. There's not enough female Turbo Duelists around. She tells me about this French woman named Sherry. She challenged Yusei to a Riding Duel apparently. Aki finally got to experience a Riding Duel on a D-Wheel and understood the thrill you get. She wants that for herself, she says. "I'm glad you're doing this." I say. "I mean, you finally get to enter our world." I laugh. She hums in agreement, I can hear the excitement in her voice. We end up talking for awhile after that. I yell at Kaoru to send Aki all of his resources since his test was the last batch. Apparently, they're happening more than once a year since the WRGP got announced. She hangs up to go back to studying. I swear that woman will work herself to death. I shake my head as I look through the over thirty missed calls. I throw a towel over my bed, laying down. I ignore most of the calls, hitting the call back button on Yusei's single missed call.
Yusei only tells me about the WRGP premiere party when it's too late. I try to calculate it on my fingers. Between patrolling territory, looking for jobs and loving my boyfriend, I don't have enough time to make a dress. Yusei is confused by my panicking, which only confuses me. He's planning on going in his normal clothes. I sigh, just accepting that my boyfriend will never change. Apparently, he told Aki around the same time. So, we're both nervous about getting clothes. Aki got rid of most of her dresses recently. Too many memories, she says. I don't push. So she only really has sundresses, nothing fit for a party.
So we arrange another shopping trip. I end up running around the shops like a headless chicken, with Aki following calmly behind me. I buy a blazer. It goes over everything, I say. I'll need a blazer at some stage of my life. Only to realise that a blazer isn't exactly what I was looking for. Aki just sighs and brings me up to a boutique with proper dresses.
"How rich do you think I am?" I mutter under my breath, looking at the price tags.
"This is only to give you ideas." She says, looking through the sale rack. "Then, you go to cheaper shops, looking for something familiar."
"You're starting to sound like me." I comment.
"Those words were from your mouth, so I'm not surprised." Aki laughs. She ends up finding a gem of a dress in the sale rack. A strapless red dress that stops just before the knee. It flares slightly at the bottom into ruffles. Such a dress definitely wouldn't suit me as it would just make me look a lot wider, where as it suits Aki's slimmer figure a lot better. Meanwhile I'm stuck looking at dresses made for people a lot slimmer than me. It's here where I curse my broad shoulders and wide hips. I try to imagine each dress under a blazer. Nothing seems quite right.
I hear hangers being pushed frantically, and fast-paced muttering. A phone rings, and they answer it. I hear Emiko's voice.
"Why did you only tell about this today, Kaoru?" She grumbles into the phone. "You knew about this party, don't lie to me." There's a pause. Aki turns to me, gesturing in Emiko's direction. I nod. They're in the same class now that Aki got bumped up a grade. "Yuuka only found about this today too? You and Yusei are a lot alike, I'm telling you." I hear Kaoru making a fuss in my head. "What do you mean look around?" Emiko says. She peers over the rails and meets my eyes. "Later Kaoru!" She cuts him off by hanging up.
"Hey." I greet her, sending a casual wave.
"Yuuka! I wasn't expecting to see you here." She says. "Hi Izayoi!" She waves before coming over to us. Emiko's not wearing heels today, a rare occurrence. That was why I couldn't see her over the rails. Emiko is one of the smallest people that I know. I could pick her up even before I started going to the gym. "Why won't those boys ever tell us about stuff like this?" She sighs. "I have so much to study for next week, this is the only time that I can go shop for clothes."
"The Linear Algebra test?" Aki asks. Emiko throws her hands up, and shakes her head.
"Don't even talk to me about it." I chuckle. She acts like this, yet I can barely count.
"I found some really good notes online. Do you want me to send them to you?" Aki moves her hand to the back of her neck.
"Oh my goodness! Please!" Emiko closes her eyes and puts her hand together. They start talking about their test. They use complicated math words that I don't understand, so I just go back to looking at the racks. Nothing is to my taste here. Much too feminine for me. I mean, I'm pretty feminine but I don't exactly dress like it.
"What have you bought already?" Emiko points at the paper bag in my hand.
"A blazer." I say.
"And you want something to go over that, yeah?" I nod. Emiko brings to her hand to her mouth, thinking. She doesn't say anything and goes immediately to the racks. Her hands move furiously as she makes a lap around the shop. "Nothing." She says as she looks through the last few dresses. I notice a hanger in her hands. A fifties style red cocktail dress. "This is for me." She sheepishly grins. "Right, I'll buy this and we'll keep looking around."
I sigh as we check shop after shop. Though it's good for me as each shop gets cheaper. We've made our way to the cheapest shop, my favourite. The stuff isn't that bad in terms of quality. Emiko and Aki keep talking about school. Not surprisingly really, they're both bookworms. Both of them are in the top five in their year. Emiko is secretly bitter about being knocked out of the top three once Aki transferred in. I think she's getting over it. I slowly move through the racks by myself. Weird as it sounds, I'm not really in the mood to shop. I've just felt really weird recently. Too many things are playing on my mind. Ghost, gangs, and Raiden. Yusei is the same. It seems like one of us is having a bad dream every other night.
"Is this what you're looking for?" A voice says beside me. I jump, not expecting it. Anako holds up a red turtleneck dress. "No? Alright then." She places the dress back on the racks a bit further down.
"Ah no, that's a really nice dress. I just wasn't expecting it, that's all."
"Gave you a fright, didn't I?" Anako laughs.
"You did." I smile. "How have you been?" I ask.
"Pretty good." She smiles. "And you? Trusting you haven't attacked by more psychics."
"No, I haven't been attacked, thankfully. So, I'm doing better than before." Anako laughs and brushes some hair behind her ear.
"That's good." Anako fixes her ponytail. "You've had a rough time recently."
"I have." I shake my head.
"I heard Shinji asked you to be on his WRGP team."
"Yeah. I said no though."
"Oh." She looks disappointed. "He asked me too."
"What did you say?" I continue looking through the racks. I stop at the dress that Anako showed me. I pick it up. Could look pretty good under a blazer. I used to wear something like this all the time. Got destroyed in my duel with Raiden, unfortunately. I always that the dress and waistcoat combo was super cute. I suppose it wouldn't look that much different with a blazer.
"I said yes." She rubs the back of her neck. She's fidgeting a lot more than I remember.
"You should be a lot happier, considering Kaoru is on the time and all." I give her a cheeky smile.
"Oh yeah, I guess." She doesn't meet my eye, weird.
"Oh hey Anako." I hear Emiko's voice behind me. Her tone is completely flat. Emiko's a bunch of dresses thrown over her arm, and I even think I see a pair of trousers in there. Emiko looks at the dress in my hands, and then back to Anako.
"Hi Emiko." There's a slight twinge of panic in Anako's voice.
"Have you picked out a dress for the party yet?" Emiko asks. Her face is completely neutral.
"Think so." Anako takes a skin tight black dress out of her basket. "I just need to try it on." Aki looks between them, and back to me, confused.
I slowly move away from them, and keep looking through the racks. I keep the red dress in my arms, I'm starting to get quite fond of it actually.
"What's going on between them?" Aki whispers when we get far enough away from them.
"Basically." I sigh. "That's what people think we should be like." She looks at me confused. "I'm pretty sure they both like Kaoru."
"Oh." Aki's eyes widen a little bit. "I'm glad we're not like that."
"Me too." I shake my head, sighing. "Crow was confused by us at the start, you know, since he thought we both liked Yusei. People confuse me. Just cause two girls like the same guy doesn't mean they can't be friends, y'know. Like who cares about some guy?" Even if Aki liked Yusei, I'd still be friends with her. Who she likes is her own business, and I wouldn't judge her merit solely based on that.
I end up buying that red dress Anako picked out for me. Emiko seemed a little disheartened, since she had basically taken that job onto herself. Things between them seem to calm down a little, so we all go for coffee. I say coffee, it's only Anako and I drinking coffee, since Aki and Emiko go straight for the tea.
"Apparently Takumi is planning a huge night out." Anako says out of the blue. "Y'know, to celebrate." She gives me this look.
"To celebrate what?" Emiko asks.
"No idea." She's lying. Anako refuses to meet my gaze as she says it.
"Yeah, he's been bugging me about going clubbing for the last while, so that's basically what it is." I try to keep it as vague as possible. I know exactly what Anako is talking about. Takumi is getting everyone to go out clubbing once we finish conquering every gang. I'm pretty sure she knows about Team Liberation. It leaked through Kaoru, that I'm certain of. The conversation suddenly fades before Emiko speaks up again.
"Oh Aki! Kaoru told me you're becoming a D-Wheeler!" Emiko's face lights up like she suddenly remembered it out of the blue.
"Are you excited?" Anako asks, holding her coffee cup in both hands as if she wants to absorb all of its heat.
"I am." Aki smiles. "Wouldn't that make everyone here a D-Wheeler?" She blinks slowly.
"Yeah, it would." Anako nods. "Good thing too. We always need more female D-Wheelers, maybe then we'll actually be taken seriously." She huffs. I shake my head, Anako has always been like this. Rallying behind every cause she can. She even has a job at a psychic helpline. I can't imagine the stories she's heard.
"If you help with anything, you can always ask us." Emiko flashes Aki a peace sign.
"Yeah, I can beat up guys who make fun of you." They all laugh, but at the same time, they all know that I'm completely serious.
It's actually nice. Having more than one female friend is great, a shocking concept, I know.
"Yuuka's actually making my Riding Suit." Aki says. Anako and Emiko both look slightly offended. I don't meet their eyes.
"Why aren't you making me one?" Emiko pouts.
"Yeah, I'd love a suit made by you." Anako follows, leaning her head on her hands.
"Oh, you know what she can do." Emiko turns to Anako with an excited look in her eyes. "She could make the suits for our team! And they could all match, it'd be so cool."
"Yeah, it would." Anako's eyes sparkle. They both turn towards me, looking at me expectantly.
"I'm too poor for that." I say outright. "Besides, I'm having a hard enough time designing my own suit." Aki wanted her design to be pretty simple. It was easy to come up with. Mine on the other hand, boy, it is a journey.
"We'd pay you of course." Anako winks at me. I put my hand to my mouth. I feel my eyes twinkle at the thought of money. Emiko throws money at me every now and again to make a dress from an unusual fabric. But something on this scale? I could buy myself a lot of food with that sort of money.
"Yeah." I pause. "Sounds like fun." I say fun, but that material is anything but.
"Yes!" Emiko claps her hands really fast before grabbing Anako's. They both freeze when they realise their position, lowering their hands awkwardly. "But I'm so glad! I love everything you make." I spot a faint red tinge to Emiko's cheeks.
I walk Aki home after everything's said and done. She sighs happily. She's probably never that experience, I realise. Going shopping with a group of friends, then again, neither have I. We're a lot alike, I always catch myself thinking.
"Are you excited?" I ask her.
"About what?"
"Learning how to ride a D-Wheel? The party? The WRGP? Everything, really."
"Yeah." She nods. "I feel like for once in my life everything's starting to go right. Do you know what I mean?"
"I suppose." I smile. Only for a brief few moments. There's always something plaguing on my mind. Raiden, Ghost, gangs, any number of bad memories. One day, I'll be normal, I keep saying. One day, I'll just wake up normal. That's a thought alright. One day.