"Cheers for Team 5D's victory!" Jack calls for a toast. I take a gulp of the can of cider that I bought.
"Cheers!"
"When Jack and Aki lost, I was really nervous!" Rua downs his drink in one go. We got the table for Zora again. Aki helped me cook most of the food. She kept making me sit down on the couch in the kitchen. She doesn't want me fainting again apparently.
"Rua, what are you trying to say?" Jack starts shouting. "You picking a fight during a party?"
"No, that's not what I meant." Rua throws his hands up in a gesture of self-defense. Jack still hasn't recovered his pride since losing to Andore. Will he ever recover his pride? Probably not.
"Stop." Crow sighs, turning to Jack. "There's no need to get angry. He was only telling the truth."
"What?" Jack's attention switches to Crow. Yusei gives me the normal look he gives me when they start fighting. The one that says I want my suffering to end.
"Since I couldn't participate, Team 5D's was a mess." Crow smiles.
"You don't know the effort we put in!" Jack retorts. "You have no right to talk because you didn't participate due to a lame injury!"
"A lame injury? I was really worried about you!" Crow screams while waving his cast enough as to not hurt his arm.
"Jack Atlas doesn't need you worrying about him!"
"When will they stop?" I sigh.
"When one of them is dead." Yusei whispers back.
"I don't even think that would stop them." I shake my head. "One would climb out of the grave if the other one called him an asshole."
"Oh gods, you're right."
"Why does this happen?" Rua sighs next.
"Because you said something unnecessary, Rua." Ruka looks so done with everything, which is relatable.
"C'mon Jack. Don't be angry." The waitress, whose name I learnt is Stephanie, comes between Crow and Jack.
"That's right, Jack." Carly moves beside Stephanie. "Let it go." She pushes Stephanie back in an effort to get closer to Jack. "Wait, what are you doing here? Your store is on the other side!"
"I'm off today!" Stephanie shoots back. "What about you? Shouldn't you be reporting a story?"
"I'm reporting a story by investigating this D-Wheeler!" Carly hugs Jack's arm, who's currently ignoring the situation in front of him.
"You're doing more than investigating!" Mikage points at Carly while shouting. "If you don't let him go, I'll arrest you for public indecency!"
"You're still here? Go back to the Public Maintenance Department!" Carly shouts back at her, and it's at this point at which I start spacing out.
"Do you want a chair?" Yusei asks me.
"Why do you ask that?"
"Your eyes are glazed over, I don't want you fainting again." He explains. "Cause I'll get one if you want."
"Nah, I'm just tired." I sigh.
"I can't tell if we're friends or not." Bruno whispers, looking at the bickering girls.
"It's fine to enjoy our victory." Yusei says. "Over the past year, we gave all our strength for this one victory."
"How special. Team 5D's throws a party just after one victory?" I turn around at the sound of a new voice to see Sherry standing at the open door.
"Sherry…" Yusei mutters.
"You're the person from before." Bruno says as she walks in.
"What's with that arrogant girl?" I hear Carly ask, still standing beside Jack.
"My name is Sherry LeBlanc. I see new faces." Sherry looks at the woman who have focused their attention on Jack.
"Sherry, did you finish your preliminaries?" Yusei's brow furrows.
"Yes." She answers. "Since you rejected me, Mizoguchi and I had to battle by ourselves."
"If it's just the two of you, that means you only have 8000 life points." Bruno says, moving towards the computer.
"That probably cause her to lose." Carly sneers, as Bruno messes with his mouse.
"Sherry, you defeated all three by yourself!?" Bruno exclaims, turning around again. What are the chances of that happening three different times today? First Yusei, now Kaoru and Sherry?
"She defeated three duelists in conditions harsher than Yusei's?" Aki turns to Crow in disbelief. Geez, those two have been standing awfully close since we got back. Another thing in my blackmail against Crow pile.
"No big deal." Sherry doesn't seem too bothered by her achievement. "I have a goal that requires me to keep winning in this tournament."
"Do you mean Yliaster?" Yusei asks.
"Yliaster?" Mikage echoes.
"Did you find a lead?"
"Not yet, but I learned that there's a connection between Yliaster and the Ghost that attacked you." Sherry says, causing Yusei to gasp.
"Ghost?" He echoes. "He's powerful. His Machine Emperor card is a Synchro killer. Yliaster was in control of Ghost? They're already around us."
"Oh yeah!" Rua exclaims. "No one made a big deal out of it because the evidence vanished... But a guy named Luciano transferred to our school."
"His five monsters combined to form Machine Emperor Skiel Infinity." Ruka explains.
"Yeah! The number eight appeared, and we couldn't escape from the duel. We took real damage during the duel." Rua says, even though I'm sure it was actually an infinity sign, but he assumed it was an eight from his angle.
"That also happened when my fake appeared." Jack adds. "Real damage occurred then too. That fake was also a robot. And no evidence was left behind then too."
"Do these perfect humanoid robots actually exist?" Ruka questions.
"It's hard to believe, but if you put all the stories together, our enemy has technology that's beyond our imaginations." At this point, I'm not surprised by any of the supernatural shit that happens around me. "Like the factory we saw when our D-Wheel engine program was stolen."
"Yeah, that factory was like a spaceship from a science fiction movie. Was it an Yliaster factory? If so, what were they building?" Crow ponders.
"Something that would use our engine program?" Bruno's eyebrows furrow.
"You two didn't see anything?" Crow looks between Bruno and I.
"A man wearing white robes knocked us out." Bruno confesses. Crow merely tuts at us. "Sorry."
"Don't apologise." I turn to him. "That guy was unnaturally strong." I remember when my kick connected with his arm. It was made of some strange metal, not exactly a material you'd expect of a prosthetic.
"Why is Yliaster targeting us?" Ruka looks to Sherry for an answer.
"Because you're Signers." She states plainly.
"Sherry, you know the legend of the Crimson Dragon?" Yusei's eyes widen.
"Of course." She smirks. "Did you think I would invite you to join my team without knowing?"
"Why are they targeting the Signers?" Jack asks.
"Jaeger!" Crow exclaims. "That freaky clown must know something! He's the one who stole our engine program!"
"Vice Director Jaeger has taken a leave of absence, so he hasn't appeared recently." Mikage explains.
"That punk is hiding! Maybe his boss knows something." Crow moves his hand to his mouth.
"Jaeger's boss is the Director of the Public Maintenance Department. The new Director hasn't shown himself. Who is it?" Jack turns back to Mikage.
"Three Directors have taken over for Director Godwin."
"Three?" Yusei echoes. Something shady is going on here.
"Can we talk to them?" Jack questions.
"No one has met them, except for Vice Director Jaeger."
"What?" Crow squints and tilts his head. "That's weird!"
"You're right." Mikage starts moving towards the door. "Like you said, I think it's worth talking to the Directors. Excuse me." She bows before leaving.
"Me too!" Stephanie says, grabbing Carly's arm.
"It seems we're disturbing you." The two of them run out the door behind Mikage.
"Will they be okay?" Bruno asks.
"They don't know anything." Sherry tuts. "We faced danger to go into the deepest section of the Public Maintenance Department."
"You're talking about the bomb scare." Crow says, stating the obvious.
"What exactly happened at the Public Maintenance Department?" Aki's eyes focus completely on Sherry.
"We were…" Sherry trails off. "We went from the deepest section of the Public Maintenance Department to a completely different place. It wasn't an illusion. The man we met holds the key to everything."
"Is that man pulling the strings for Yliaster?" That machine is a man, then? Bruno called it a man too. That comma shaped machine is really hosting a man inside. I find it hard to believe.
"I don't know. But if I keep winning in this tournament, I believe he'll come for me." Sherry puts on her helmet and mounts her D-Wheel. "Until then, I hope you won't become my enemy, Yusei."
"What do you mean?" Yusei asks.
"Let's meet again." Sherry merely lowers her visor and drives away.
"Maybe Sherry doesn't want to battle against Team 5D's." Aki says.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to go up against you guys either." I reply. Bruno slams his hands on the table, slumping over.
"Bruno?"
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Ruka raises a timid, caring hand.
"I was a little dizzy." He starts walking towards the open shutter door. "I'm going outside for some fresh air."
The room is eerily silent then. Yusei steps outside, I join him. We stand there, just staring at the sky. Some chatter comes back into the garage, they've started eating the now slightly cold food.
"If what Sherry says is true, it's only a matter of time before Ghost reappears." Yusei says out of the blue. "I need to know how to use Accel Synchro."
"Yeah." I nod. "I'm scared." I finally admit. "There's so much going on around us. The man inside that machine, Ghost, Yliaster."
"I am too." Yusei sighs. "But we're going to face it together."
"That's true." I answer. "We've already been through so much, we can hardly stop now." My phone starts ringing. It's Kasumi. "Hello?"
"Hey Yuuka. A friend of yours just called over to the house looking for you, he seems quite upset."
"Who is it?" I ask.
"He said his name was Kenta."
"Right, I'm on my way. We can talk more when I get there." I say before hanging up the phone. "Oh boy." I sigh, looking at Yusei.
"Kenta?" Yusei repeats. The volume of calls on my phone is quite loud, he must have heard it.
"Yeah, apparently he's upset about something. Don't know what though." I answer.
"Are you sure you don't know?"
"I have an idea, but I'm not certain." I sigh.
"It has to do with Takumi, I'm guessing." Yusei gives me this knowing look. He knows something I don't. That's what that look says, or that he's caught onto something.
"It always has something to do with that asshole."
"Kenta's inside." Kaoru says to me when I pull up into the garage.
"You know what this is about, don't you?" I ask.
"It's not my place to tell you."
"Where are you going anyway?" Kaoru has since changed out of his WRGP clothes, opting for his normal red riding jacket.
"Out." I just scoff at his answer, going inside. I can't believe our relationship has gotten to this point. I thought I understood him, you know? You think you'd understand a person after months of hearing each other's thoughts, but no. Kasumi hears us talking, and her head pops out of the kitchen. She sees me and almost tiptoes towards me.
"I don't think your friend is doing very well." Her eyes looks towards the slightly open sitting room door. "He seems very upset about something. He's telling me that it's nothing, despite how many times I've asked."
"I think I know what it is." It's a thought that flashed into my head after the celebration party. Kenta is very rarely upset. In all the time I've known him, it's very rare he shows anything more than annoyance.
"Are you sure you don't want some tea?" Kasumi pops her head into the sitting room. Kenta jumps slightly.
"No thank you, Ms Hattori, I'm good for the minute."
"I told you to call me Kasumi, it's making me feel old." She waves her hand, making a face that I swear I've made before. "I'll leave you two to talk."
"Oh hey." Kenta bites his lip, noticing me.
"Come on, let's go up to my room."
I sit down on my bed. Kenta, having closed the door, stands there nervously.
"You're allowed to sit down, you know?" I pat a spot on the bed beside me. Kenta sits down and stares at his hands. "What's going on?"
"Well." Kenta sighs. "Takumi and I broke up."
"Oh." That's the only thing that comes from my mouth.
"I saw it coming if I'm being honest. We've been fighting non-stop for months." He bites his lips again.
"You knew about Takumi's plan the entire time?" Takumi's smug face flashes in my mind. My fists clench without me realising it. Kenta's flinch makes me realise it.
"Yes. After we fought the first gang, the idea struck him." Kenta shakes his head. "Something about seeing our potential. He tried to talk me around to the idea. Obviously, it didn't work. He stopped talking about it for a while. I think it was after Phantom Riders that he brought it up again. You had defeated Miguel so quickly. I think he realised that we actually could take over the City."
"Is that why for the next gang you did your own thing?" I ask. Kenta seemed so different that day. Someone normally so cautious, throwing that into the wind, only for it to go completely wrong.
"Yes." He answers. "I was just so angry. I told Takumi I was at my breaking point. If he didn't stop, I'd be forced to do something that I didn't want to do."
"You left him?"
"Yes. He didn't seem that upset." Kenta shakes his head, I see tears forming. "He just sat there like it wasn't happening. Like our two year anniversary was coming up, and he acted like he didn't care." I don't know what to say. "I mean, I still have feelings for him, sure. But I just couldn't do it anymore, Yuuka. He's changed a lot. He's not the same Takumi he was a year ago."
His eyes meet mine, full of tears. I feel a small gasp rise from my chest. I see myself. I see that helpless look that I know too well. I've been forced to make the same decision. It's a long, painful decision. One I still bear the scars of. A long line down the center of my chest. A reminder that my decision came too little, too late. The memory of Raiden Kimura will haunt me as long as I live. It's not too late for Kenta. He still has time. Takumi has not gone too far down that dark path. He still has that chance.
"Why did you come here?" With every syllable that falls from my mouth, the answer starts to dawn on me.
"I have nowhere else to go." He sighs. "My dad was okay with the whole being gay and trans thing, but not the psychic thing. Even before we got together, I was crashing on Takumi's couch." Kenta's eyes glaze over, as if in a trance. "He helped me through all that. He put me in contact with that psychic doctor, Nico, and I went on testosterone. I will always be grateful for that. I need to move on. I couldn't stay there anymore."
"Do you know what you need?" I say, standing up. Kenta snaps out of his trance. He tilts his head, unsure of whether to stand up or not. "Stay here." I all but run out of my room. Kasumi shakes her head, smiling as I walk out of the kitchen and back up the stairs again.
"I don't drink." Kenta sighs. I hand him the two wine glasses in my hand.
"You say that now." I read the label of the bottle, not too shabby. "Wine is always good for this kinda stuff. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't do this after the whole thing with Raiden. So, it's a healing experience for the both of us."
"Really?" Kenta raises an eyebrow at me. "Not surprised, considering it's you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, opening the bottle.
"You." Kenta moves his eyes from me to stare at the bottle. "Alcohol."
"That's fair." I shoot back. He takes the half-filled glass I give to him, but waits for me to take the first sip. His face contorts as he tastes the wine. "Not used to it, are you?" I laugh, before taking another sip. Wine isn't normally what I drink, but I'll take what I can get. Kasumi loves the stuff, and I'd hardly give vodka to Kenta cause I know that he has a low tolerance.
"Not really." He answers. I go to say that I'm surprised, but I realised that it would be in poor taste considering why he's here. "I've never had red wine before."
"I only started drinking it once I moved back here. Kasumi has a glass the odd night after work." I swirl my glass, seems like a classy wine drinker thing to do. "Not the worst thing in the world."
"Yeah." Kenta agrees. "Don't know how you can stomach vodka, that shit is disgusting."
"Gets you drunk quickly." I take another sip. "When you're like me, that's what you want. My powers stop me from getting drunk easily. Short story, it sucks."
"Is it part of the healing?" He asks and I nod. "Shouldn't affect me then." Kenta downs the rest of the glass, reaching for the wine bottle already. I sigh, this isn't going to end well.
"Okay, let's start from the top." I take a long gulp. "Tell me everything."
"We met just before I got kicked out by my dad. I had just joined the Onyx Slicers."
"Takumi has already told me this, if it helps." I nod slowly, interrupting him. Kenta raises his hand to stop me.
"I still looked like a girl then, but he figured out that I wasn't pretty quickly. He helped me cut my hair and stuff, got me a binder." Kenta fiddles with his fingers. His eyes glaze over as the memories resurface. "We went from just friends to dating pretty quickly. It was all nice and happy. We were just cute, happy boyfriends. I went on T, that was cool. We met you soon after."
"So, I said Takumi, I can't do this anymore. You know what I mean?" Kenta's face is flushed. I moved the wine bottle just out of his reach, so he'd have to stand up to get it.
"I know, he's an asshole. We've established this by now." I shake my head, smiling. Kenta's tolerance is a lot lower than I remembered.
"You'd swear it would kill him to put the toilet seat down. I know we're both guys, but I can't..." He hands me his wine glass, and makes weird gestures with his hands. "Pee like that?"
"I know, buddy, it's okay." He takes the glass back, and downs a significant portion of it. He's been complaining about Takumi for, at least, the last hour, not that I blame him. "We're going to get you a new boyfriend."
"Yes!" Kenta slams his empty fist on my bed sheets. "One who will treat me right."
"Because that's what you deserve." He snaps his fingers, points at me and smiles. I laugh at Kenta's drunken behaviour. I've decided to stop drinking for the time being. It's up to me to stop Kenta making bad life choices while drunk. A lot of poor life choices stem from alcohol, speaking from experience. "Speaking of which, do you think any boys are cute?" I put my fist underneath my chin and raise an eyebrow. This action causes Kenta to become very flustered, nearly spilling the wine in the attempt to hide his face.
"Maybe." He moves his fingers so I'm able to see one of his eyes.
"C'mon." I scoot closer to him. "Tell me. Who is it? Do I know him? Have you talked at all?"
"Well." Kenta moves his hands into his lap, his face burning hot red. "You know him alright."
"And?" I scoot over more, our shoulders touching. He doesn't move away.
"You know Miguel, right?"
"Phantom Riders' Miguel?" I picture the incredibly tall red-headed Satellite that I dueled for their territory. He seemed like the nicest of all the gang leaders that I met. Though, I would never had pinned him as Kenta's type. "You like tall, kinda muscular guys then?" A grin spreads across my face, causing Kenta to hide his face again.
"I'm gay, Yuuka."
"Oh I know, you didn't have to tell me." I fall backwards, spread out on the bed, laughing.
"It's not funny, Yuuka." He groans. "He's really cute, and he gave me his number."
"He gave you his number? Sounds pretty serious." I sit back up. Kenta stares up at the ceiling. "When did this happen?"
"At, like, that celebration party at Yusei's place." His gaze shifts awkwardly to his lap. "We talked the entire time, he was really nice and cute. Before that whole thing with Takumi happened, we swapped numbers." He shifts a little. "We've been talking a lot, nothing serious obviously. But I think that I actually like him."
"Oh geez, you caught the feelings." I feel my eyes widen a little. "When's the last time he texted you?"
"This afternoon." Kenta pick up his phone and scrolls through it. "He's busy today preparing for the WRGP. His team's first match is tomorrow."
"You're asking him out for coffee." I say, not giving him room to disagree.
"Yuuka." He whines. "I'm too drunk to do this right now. What if he says no?" I take his phone out of his hand. He falls into my lap in an attempt to get it back.
"Look." I move the phone so he can see what I'm doing. "I'm just reading the messages, I'll type it for you." I try to copy Kenta's texting style as hard as it is. I curse my inability to spell under most circumstances, yet alone while drinking. "Okay. We're saying that you two should meet after his match for coffee. You're not coming off too strong, you're being nice and friendly."
"Now, I stare into the void until he texts me back." Kenta says, lying flat on my bed, staring at the ceiling. He falls asleep in about twenty seconds. I should probably wake him up and tell him that he shouldn't sleep in skinny jeans. Then again, he probably needs that sleep. Kenta ends up lying across my double bed, rather than the normal way. I move the wine and glass far enough away that we won't knock them over. I lie beside him and just stare at the ceiling in my slightly tipsy state.
"Yuuka." My name slurs out of Kenta's mouth as he shakes me awake. "Yuuka, wake up. He texted me back." I sit back up, having fallen asleep. Morning light filters through the gap in the curtains.
"Shit, what did he say?" I ask. Kenta's face gives me the impression that he's slightly hungover.
"Actually, he texted me while you were asleep, and you wouldn't wake up so I texted him myself. He wants me to be, like, in his team's pit." Kenta shrugs his shoulders and makes a face. "So, of course my gay ass said yes. Now, I need you to drive me to their match."
"Really?" I groan. "Fine." I get up, throwing on my jacket. I managed to fall asleep in my jeans, leaving the imprint of the seam on my leg I'm sure. "If you want a change of clothes, I have stuff from the men's section and there's some stuff in Kaoru's room but that might be too big for you. You gotta look nice today." I avoid saying the word date, but that's what this is.
"Cool." He opens some drawers in my dresser. "You not gonna change?"
"Nah, at this point I'm just used to wearing the same outfit everyday." I pick up my riding pads which I threw on the floor early into the night.
"Miguel said the same thing." Kenta picks out a white t-shirt with some design that I can't see on the front. "Apparently everyone from the Satellite is like that?"
"Yeah, it's true." I move so Kenta can look at the jackets hanging on the back of my door. "You're just gonna have to wear those jeans again, nothing I have will fit you."
"I'll survive." Something resembling a chuckle escapes his mouth.
"Good luck." I wink as Kenta puts the spare helmet into the tiny storage box in my D-Wheel. He nearly loses his cool. "You'll need it today."
"Don't say it like that. We're just hanging out."
"Sure. You know exactly what this is."
"Shut up." Kenta rolls his eyes. An indistinguishable look appears on his face. "Thank you Yuuka. For everything."
"You're welcome." I smile. We say nothing more than that, we don't have to. I open up my arms. Kenta smiles before hugging me. "Go on, kid. He's waiting for you."