Sorry for the wait on this chapter. I had a bit of an issue with my computer, but it should be fixed. I have the next few chapters pretty much done, but I'll try to spread the updates out a little bit to give me time to get ahead. Thank you all for being patient with me.

There is something I've been meaning to bring up, however. I recently noticed that I pretty much pull a bunch of characters out of nowhere for opponents and such, but when we hit the Arcadia Movement section, I'm going to need a few characters as 'allies' of sorts. If anyone has an OC or something they would like featured, either shot me a pm or leave a review if you're a guest. This way the story might be a bit more enjoyable for you. Be sure to include the basic personality/deck/appearance stuff though.

My opponent glowered down at me from across the duel field, as if knowing I was going far too easy on him. I don't think I've ever met a duelist who couldn't play at least one card per turn, yet there I was, doing nothing on my turns and acting as if I had a bad draw. That long-ago night when Kaze and I vowed to make Keisuke regret his blackmail, we also came up with the means to do it. Keisuke was essentially forcing Kaze into staying, that much was true, but by no means did we actually have to give him and the other patrons a show. It was a bit of a risk, as it could negate what bit of good will the bartender seemed to possess towards us, but Kaze figured that pushing his buttons was exactly what we needed to do.

The man drew a card, slammed it down onto the field and finished me off. I, of course, pretended to be upset over my loss as I stepped down from the arena, leaving Kaze alone in our three-way duel.

For the most part, our plan seemed to work, at least with me. Kaze, on the other hand, was having a bit of a harder time holding back. It would take him much longer than it would take me to complete his turn, and he seemed to be struggling. The crowd was very fickle, changing sides in an instant: one moment they would cheer Kaze on as the 'Red Demon' at the start of his turn, but then boo him if he'd pass without doing anything. Even though I was his partner in this match, my turns went by with nary a single complaint.

Although he said this place didn't bother him, watching him as he dueled… I don't want to say that he was like a different person, but there was something else. The brunette certainly was facing much more pressure. Since more people knew him as the Red Demon, he had more spectators at his matches. Not only that, but Keisuke was always there one way or another.

Our opponent quickly ordered his Chaos Emperor Dragon to attack, which would remove the final 600 points of Kaze's life points. At the last second, however, Kaze activated Shrink, which reduced our opponent's monster's attack to 1500, allowing Brionac to destroy it and take our opponent down to zero life points.

This wasn't the first time that this has happened. In fact, I couldn't remember Kaze losing even once during our stay here. It struck me as odd, seeing how it was his plan to lose our duels, yet he wasn't following through with it entirely. Certainly, he wasn't playing as aggressive as he could have, but he still always managed to win in the end. Throughout this duel, it felt as if his moves were counteracting mine. If I let a monster be in Attack Mode, when our opponent summoned a monster to destroy it, Kaze would use a card which would allow the monster to win. If our opponent went to attack me directly, Kaze would use a card to stop the attack. Since we weren't actual partners in this duel, as it was set up in a free-for-all style, our interactions were restricted, by our choice, to being nearly identical to that of a tag duel partner. Neither of us attacked each other, but Kaze seemingly went out of his way to activate his cards to try and prolong the duel by keeping me in the game. That, in itself, would have been fine, but it was his last move that got me concerned. Why was he winning his duels? He never approached me about a change in plan, so I assumed that it remained the same.

When Kaze stepped down from the arena, I quickly approached him before he got lost in the crowd. "Kaze," I began softly, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Kaze asked in return.

"What about the plan? I thought we were supposed to be losing," I decided to rephrase my concerns. Kaze's eyes widened, as if he hadn't even realized that that was what he was doing.

"Well, I…" Kaze trailed off as his eyes searched the surrounding arena. Once he seemingly found what he was walking for, I followed his gaze to see Keisuke staring in our direction. The bartender met our eyes for a brief second before he turned back to the duelist beside him and began to laugh about something. "Look, I know things aren't exactly going according to plan… It's just that Keisuke told me that I shouldn't lose, and…" Kaze's words seemed to fail him once more.

"Shouldn't?" I asked cautiously, alerting Kaze to his choice of words. "Kaze, are you sure that you're alright?"

"Y-yeah…. It's just… being here again has kind of brought back some memories," Kaze left it at that. There was really no doubt to what he was referring to. That video… how Kaze was during his childhood… How much longer were we going to be trapped here? After doing another quick scan of the area, Kaze began to walk away, motioning for me to follow. "Aki…. I've been thinking about it and, well, I've come up with a new plan," Kaze whispered.

"A new plan…? As in you think the old one isn't going to work?" I questioned.

"We've already been here for a few days. You've tried losing, I've tried winning. Keisuke hasn't approached us either way, has he?" Kaze asked. I nodded my confirmation. "So, if that's the case, then no matter what we do, he won't be satisfied. We have to take matters into our own hands," Kaze paused momentarily, "I'm going to take the video myself."

"Kaze…! You know what will happen if he finds you!" I tried to make him see reason before it was too late. If he got caught, not only would us staying here have been pointless, as Keisuke would probably sent out the video, but it was also very likely that Keisuke would use his duelist lackeys to punish him. Possibly even me too, by association… Those criminal markers on their faces weren't for decoration.

"He's not going to find me," the brunette tried to reassure me, but to no avail. The whole time we were here, we had only traversed between our room and the duel arenas with the occasional trip upstairs to the bar. As a result, Kaze would have no idea what kind of security Keisuke had surrounding the video. That is, if he even left it somewhere to begin with. "In the meantime I want you to stay out of harm's way. If you go and stay in your room… should the worst happen, you'll still be okay," Kaze said.

"As flattered as I am, I already told you that I'm going to be here for you. If you're going through with this, then I want to help you. I can distract Keisuke and his men and then once you get the video, we can-," I started.

"No! Aki, you can't! I… If you got hurt because of me, I'd never be able to forgive myself," Kaze spoke as he leveled his gaze with mine.

"And the same goes for me. If I sat by idly while you got hurt, then what kind of friend would that make me?" I retorted. "Besides, you never did things on your own at your Duel Academy, did you? Even if some of the duels were Single Duels, you still had friends to support you," I continued with my argument. With a sigh, Kaze seemed to resign himself to defeat. The duelist beside me crossed his arms as he pondered our next action.

"Alright, I've got it. We're going to take things one step at a time. You can distract Keisuke, but only by talking, nothing that would draw attention to you. While you do that, I'll try and look around for the video, but I won't make any moves to get it unless it's unguarded. Worst case scenario, nothing gets accomplished. Best case scenario, we get out of here tonight," Kaze summarized his plan briefly. It took a weight off of my shoulders knowing that Kaze was on the same page as me. What I had said earlier was true. It was clear that my well-being was on the front of Kaze's mind, but if he got hurt trying remove me from this environment while I did nothing, there was no way I could have forgiven myself.

"All right. Let's meet up by the bar in an hour to discuss what we're going to do from there," I suggested. One hour seemed to be plenty enough for my partner, as Kaze simply nodded in agreement before wishing me luck and departing. I took in a breath, mentally preparing what I would say to the bartender in question.

"What are you doing?" Keisuke asked suddenly. Trying my best to swallow down the surprise and panic in my features, I turned around to face the man's scarred face.

"I don't know what you mean…" I said.

"Don't play me for a fool, Rose. You're losing your duels… why?" Keisuke seemed more genuinely concerned rather than interrogative as he asked for an answer.

"I'm just not getting the cards I need," I tried to explain myself in a way that made sense. After my duel with Kaze, I couldn't flat out say that I had no good cards in my deck. Keisuke had seen my combos and more than likely knew I wasn't a push-over of a duelist.

"Look, Rose… I can understand why you're trying to lose," Keisuke's commented, causing my stomach to drop. How could he have known? Kaze and I never spoke of the plan around others, so someone couldn't have told him. While there were some cameras here and there, none of them would have been able to zoom in enough to see my cards and prove my excuse invalid. They seemed fairly ancient in terms of design. There was no way that Kaze would have told him, either. So how did he… I quickly cut off my thoughts to try and appear interested in what he was saying next. "You don't have to hold anything back. That's why you're here instead of at Duel Academy. You owe it to yourself... Don't run! Stand your ground and fight!"

The fear left my body in one fell swoop. Keisuke didn't know about the plan after all. He thought that I was holding back because of my powers. If that were the case, then I could play off of that to try and buy Kaze some time.

"I don't want to hurt people more than I already have," I looked to the ground as I spoke, doing my best to look as if I were wallowing in regret. That's when Keisuke places a hand on my shoulder.

"You don't have to worry about that. You know what? There's something that you probably ought to see," the man said offhandedly before briskly walking away. Taking this as a sign to follow, I quickly tried to match his pace as he weaved between several of the underground patrons. Keisuke eventually stopped once we were in the first row of observers for an ongoing duel. I turned to him, waiting for some kind of explanation of what I was supposed to be seeing, but his eyes were fixated ahead of him. The duel is what he wanted me to see? It didn't seem to be anything special, just a Single Duel between two adults using holographic monsters. Essentially, it was just a regular old duel that you'd see on the streets.

"Alright! Abyss Soldier, attack him directly!" the blond duelist shouted. The humanoid whale let out a cry before charging forward, slicing its trident right through its opponent. As usual, the trident faded through him, leaving the man unharmed. Once the attack was done, however, I saw a spark coming from what seemed to be the man's neck. The spark turned out to be much more than it seemed, as the duelist's legs began to waver, but he remained strong. Still, where had that shock come from? Even if his opponent had wielded supernatural powers, his monster used a trident. The damage should have been a physical cut, not a shock.

"You see, Rose, down here, lots of people bet more than a few DP. They bet their life too with the Shockers," Keisuke remarked as the man righted himself and continued on with the duel. It didn't really make any sense. Back at Duel Academy, people would flee at even the slight possibility of pain. Here, everyone seemed to crave it. Looking back on it, when Kaze and I first arrived here, the guards offered us something from a suitcase. I wasn't quite sure how to take them. It essentially gave normal duelists powers like mine. Granted, they wouldn't be able to harm anyone that didn't consent to such a duel, but still…

"About that… do the duels get more DP by wearing them?" I asked, trying to find some reason behind the devices.

"Nope. They aren't required either. You could gather that since neither you nor Demon wear them. People wear them simply for the thrill," Keisuke answered. That answered one question, but raised a few more. If they weren't required, why would nearly everyone be wearing them? A few people I could understand, for that might be in their tastes, but this arena had daily visitors in the hundreds. The chances of every single one of them enjoying pain were slim to none. Even if they did enjoy the pain, shocking certainly didn't seem like the most practical method. While a simple cut would leave a scar at most, electricity could do much more to one's body. Did they not know that, or did they just prefer this added risk…?

I quickly drew myself out of my thoughts when I saw Keisuke turning to leave out of the corner of my eyes. Knowing that Kaze still needed more time, I began scrambling for something to keep him here for at least a while longer, "Keisuke!"

"What is it, Rose? I have some more business to attend to," Keisuke said, only turning halfway around so he could meet my gaze. That's when it occurred to me that I hadn't thought of a single intelligent question to ask. I briefly scanned my surroundings for inspiration, which is when I saw the electronic board that placed photos of the duelists up for everyone to see.

"That board over there," I began hesitantly. With a slight raise of his eyebrow, Keisuke turned to the board in question.

"Yeah, what about it?" he asked in an utterly unamused tone.

"Well… Kaze and I still don't have updated pictures. That might throw people off, you know?" Keisuke just continued to stare at me, giving no sign of whether he was going to go along or not. Honestly, I probably should have thought up of a better question. Pictures? Really? Regardless, after his internal debate, Keisuke seemed to find a bit of reason in my point.

"Alright. Let's just go find Demon and-"

"Wait, no!" the words left my mouth before I could stop them. At this point, Keisuke turned to face me. His previously aloof expression had a certain glint to it, as if he sensed the panic in my statement. "I mean… Kaze isn't feeling too well today. He just went back to his room after that duel. We should let him rest up!" I fumbled for an excuse that I hoped would work. If Keisuke thought Kaze was sick, then chances were that he'd try to avoid the brunette's room until later, giving Kaze the perfect alibi.

"Okay… So you just want it for you, then?" Keisuke asked a little too slowly, revealing his apprehension about my sudden outbursts. Suddenly I found myself wishing I had more time to prepare. I still nodded, following Keisuke as he began to lead me to the room directly under the electronic sign. My mind began wandering at this point, searching for any other ways to distract him. If I was as obvious as I had been up until that point, he'd have to be a blatant idiot to not see something was up. Speaking of blatant idiots, though…

As I entered the room with Keisuke, I found something that I really had hoped not to see. Or rather, someone. Standing with his back pressed to the wall, Kaze just continued to stare on in shock, having been caught red handed in the act. I quickly looked ahead of me, seeing Keisuke mumbling to himself as he placed a hand on his head. It seemed like he hadn't noticed Kaze yet, which would give him the exactly chance he needed. Said brunette couldn't seem to decide where to press his luck at though. If he made a break for it, Keisuke could hear or see him move, but if he remained where he was, then Keisuke would no doubt find him in our time here. That's how I ended up returning my eyes towards Kaze before looking towards the door, repeating the action a few times, occasionally with a nudge of my head. Kaze seemed to understand the motion, as he gave a very small nod in return before inching his way towards the door.

"So, Rose, about the-" Keisuke started to speak as he turned around. If he completed that turn he could easily see Kaze. I quickly walked ahead of the bartender pretending to be interested by the shelf of books on the other side of the room.

"Wow, you have so many books here! You should have told me! I love reading! It'd give me something to do to pass the time!" I gushed with as much enthusiasm as I could while reaching out and picking a book at random. Just as I opened it to feign interest, a firm hand latched onto my wrist while another ripped the book away.

"I think that's enough snooping around. Do you want your picture or not?" Keisuke growled, noticeably a lot more tense. I snuck a gaze behind him, seeing that Kaze escaped without a problem, which meant a majority of the pressure was gone. Even so, I made sure to make a mental note on this bookcase though. The books didn't seem to be real books. That is, they lacked any author and the titles weren't really titles. Well, they were more like labels. Things like 'R997-A' and 'V001-C'. I could only guess at what they stood for, if they stood for anything at all. Right now, I was supposed to be concerned about my picture, though.

"Oh, that's right! Let's get started!"

I let out a sigh as I rested my head on the palms of my hands. After managing to blink during the first three photos to try and stall a bit more, Keisuke had been concerned enough to offer getting a nurse. While waiting for someone to arrive would have given Kaze more time, it certainly would have been a lot more suspicious if she came and nothing was wrong with me, and so during the next attempt, I kept my eyes open and face neutral, as all the other photos had been. Almost immediately after, Keisuke had left, denying all of my attempts to stop him. That's how I ended up at the bar, waiting for Kaze to surface half an hour before we were supposed to reunite. I had accepted that Kaze might not surface for quite some time, but quite frankly, I felt safer up in the bar area, away from all the activity below. Except for the very late hours of the night, the bar was pretty much empty, giving me the privacy I needed to deal with my thoughts.

Those books that Keisuke had been so protective about… I didn't get much of a glimpse, but inside of it there were photos and several hand written scribbles decorating the worn down pages. The titles didn't really give any clue either. I mused briefly with what they could mean. The V could mean volume, which made sense, but an R…? I could only—

Suddenly, the door leading to the arena slammed open, revealing a slightly panicked Kaze. "Oh, Kaze. How'd things go?" I asked.

"We don't have time for pleasantries! We have to go now!" Kaze insisted, causing me to jump to my feet.

"Did you get caught?" I tried to gather as much as I could about the situation. Seeing Kaze's surprise at my suggestion showed that this wasn't the case though.

"W-what…? No, no, everything went fine with my search thanks to you, but…" the brunette trailed off, eventually deciding to fish through his left pocket for something instead. He pulled out a crudely folded piece of paper before handing it to me. I gave Kaze an apprehensive look, not seeing what the problem could be if Keisuke wasn't after us, but unfolded the note anyway.

'Well, well, Demon. Looks like you decided to show face again. Don't think I've forgotten how you humiliated me. You used to go to DA, yeah? Well, this girlie here came by looking for you, so I thought I'd help her find a place to stay. Of course, I'm treating her like a proper gentleman for the time being. If you don't come down to the abandoned building by Joan's Pub and Tap tonight at midnight, however… let's just say the next time you see your little friend will be in pieces.'

"So, you get it, right? We have to get going!" Kaze said as soon as I finished skimming the note and looked up.

"Hold on, I don't get it. Why are you so panicked about this? It's probably just some trap to lure you out. No one from DA would know where we are," I pointed out.

"That's what I thought too, but why would they use that as a guise if that were true? There are certainly other things that they could have used to get me there. They could contact Keisuke to set up a request match or sneak in here and take something of mine. But they chose to use this situation. To be honest, though, there's a chance that someone did come after us… or rather me," Kaze proposed the idea, taking me by surprise. Someone from DA coming after him? Would it be Yumi, for revenge? If that were the case, then she wouldn't be kidnapped, she'd work with them. They wouldn't necessarily say that, though, so that did leave her as a possibility… Taking note of my curiosity, Kaze decided to continue on with his theory, "It's no one that you would know, since it's not from your Duel Academy. I have a feeling it might be someone from mine… It might be Rei."

Rei…? The girl who was constantly contacting Kaze? Since they chatted, it would make sense that she knew the broad area we were in, but to link that to here… unless… she knew about Kaze's past. The notion left a sort of bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't that I expected Kaze to only be close to me, that was far too possessive. I suppose I felt that our pasts linked us, a kind of secret that only we knew.

"Aki…?" Kaze seemed to have picked up on my mood change, as he now looked concerned.

"Kaze… it's only noon," I pointed out, figuring that would be a decent enough excuse to distract him from my behavior.

"Well, yeah, but… I can't leave Rei with them for so long without doing anything!" Kaze tried to protest.

"And who says they'll even be there? What if they don't show up to this place until midnight," I continued to, surprisingly, be the voice of reason for him today. Kaze still didn't seem to content with this, however, and I can't say it was unjustified. He had spent the last few years with this girl and she was fairly close to him. Now she was suddenly kidnapped by someone from his past intent on revenge. Knowing Kaze, he would rather walk blindly into a trap than see someone hurt. How he dealt with Ida was an example of this flaw.

With a sigh, Kaze resigned from his argument, instead taking a seat next to me at the bar. He pulled at his necklace, still somewhat tense about the situation, but choosing not to pursue the topic any more until later. "So, I take it things went well for you? I mean, Keisuke didn't seem like he was going to chop your head off or anything," Kaze said, bringing up the topic that had previously been forgotten.

"Well, about that," I began. "While you were in there, did you investigate the book shelf?"

"Hm…? No, I was focused on the computers. I was about to check them out, but that's when you guys arrived," Kaze said.

"Keisuke got really defensive about them when I went near it. There might be something inside related to the video," I theorized, causing Kaze's eyes to widen.

"Do you remember anything about them?" the brunette questioned. That brought the titles of the books to mind. While I had no clue what they meant, Kaze spent quite some time here in his childhood, so he might know something about their code.

"Their titles were like serial numbers. I remember 'R997-A' and 'V001-C' distinctly, but not the rest," I reported. Kaze looked down at his hands, mumbling something to himself that I couldn't quite make out. After a few seconds, he looked back up at me.

"Do you remember what I said earlier? About the request match?" Kaze pondered, pausing long enough for me to nod. "There are two kinds of matches here. Random and Request. Your match ups are Random. You're assigned an opponent at random from the pool of duelists there that day. My match ups are usually Request ones, as in duelists place in a request to duel me and then the arena handles the rest. Usually, there's a slip of DP here or there included with a request, so Keisuke likes to keep track of them. The R997-A must be a selection of requests from 1997, the first ones of the year," Kaze explained briefly. 1997? That was quite a ways back. Just how long has Duel Monsters had such a dark side to it?

"So then, if that's what the R stands for, what about the V?" I voiced the next question that popped into my head.

"V stands for Veterans. As you can probably tell, the Arena likes to keep tabs on its patrons, especially the more… beneficial ones," Kaze spoke apprehensively, as if unsure if that were the right word to use. I could only assume it meant duelists like him who rarely lost a duel. "For the C, I assume that it includes anyone with a surname starting with C. It's easier than recording them by the date of their arrival," Kaze finished, answering a majority of the questions I had based on what I saw. One still lingered though.

"So, it seems as though I haven't made any breakthroughs, but what about you? Did you find anything?"

"No, nothing related to the video or us. I searched through the files and the video wasn't there. Based on that, though, it's safe to assume that the chip Keisuke has is the only copy of the video, which makes things simpler for us," Kaze said. Only one copy…? So then all we had to do was obtain the video and then we were safe.

With that last bit of information covered, things seemed to come to a standstill. Neither of us said anything, instead choosing to remain in silence.

"I should probably get going. I have a duel in a bit and there's something that I need to do," Kaze spoke vaguely, which drew my attention more than him suddenly standing.

"Kaze," I began, causing the brunette to pause as his hand went to his pockets once more, "everything is going to be fine. I'll go with you and we'll save Rei. By this time tomorrow, you'll be swapping stories with her like you two never even separated," I smiled softly, hoping it would ease his nerves. Seeing how a small smile made its way onto his face, that seemed to be the case.

"Thanks, Aki. I'll come by your room before I head out, if that's okay."

"Of course. I won't be going to bed, so just knock."

Giving a small wave, Kaze left to head down to the arena and his upcoming duel. With him gone, my thoughts began to wander in several different directions.

What did those 'Requests' entail of? Why would there be a need to record them if they were just simple duels? Random duels weren't, or couldn't be, recorded, because they both started with R. Was there something Kaze wasn't telling me about them?

What wasn't Kaze telling me about what he had to do? It wasn't like I didn't trust him, but he certainly seemed a bit… different since that note arrived. Where did he even get the note? Did he return to his room and find it there, or did someone deliver it to him personally?

What was awaiting us tonight at the abandoned building? If there really was a trap, how would we handle it? Would things escalate to violence? If so, then how could we guarantee the safety of the supposed hostage? And if the hostage was indeed Rei Saotome… where did that leave us?