The days were becoming more monotonous after our last excursion. They usually went something like this: wake up, eat breakfast, duel a few duels, have lunch, duel a few more duels, have supper, relax, sleep, repeat. Even the meals were the same, such as now. Whenever we went up to the bar, Keisuke had always placed a gallon of milk and a few small cups of cereal for us. Certainly, it wasn't the most luxurious meal, but it was the only thing available without going out of our way and paying for it. Kaze and I were munching away at whatever cereal was provided when Ida threw open the door from the arena. Somehow, she still carried that boundless energy.

"Guys! You'll never guess what I'm doing today!" Ida exclaimed as she darted over to us.

"What is it? Checking out the streets again?" Kaze asked. Ida shook her head.

"Way better! I'm going to join you guys! I'm having my first duel in the arena today!" I quickly froze mid-bite while Kaze started choking on his meal. Ida gave us concerned glances as the brunette hit his chest a few times, eventually gathering himself enough to let out a sigh of relief before returning to seriousness.

"Look, Ida, you can't duel!" Kaze said.

"That's right…! You don't have any powers and, I mean, who else is going to patrol the streets?" I tried to detour her away. We did allow her to stay, but we never expected her to go out of her way to sign up for duels in the arena. We had always assumed she would stick away from it.

"I know I don't have powers, but I can still defeat them! I can still knock my heroism into them and put them on the path of justice! I can't leave you guys alone in the dueling!" Ida tried to argue. If she knew what she was getting into, what with the shockers and shouts for death, maybe we'd be more open with the idea of her dueling. She still thought pretty optimistically about this whole thing, though.

"Ida, hold on… There's-" Kaze started, probably considering spilling the whole truth to her.

"Well, I just wanted to let you guys know so you could watch when you were done! I'm off!" Ida shouted before darting off once more, despite Kaze's calls for her to stop. We didn't even need to agree on the next action, as we both quickly got up and ran after her down the stairs. Be it the grey-haired teen's head start or energy, Ida managed to beat us to the arena, as when we arrived, she was already starting the duel. Our worst fears were confirmed at that moment. Both of the duelists were wearing shockers. One was placed on each neck while one was on each forearm and ankle.

"Hey, Ida…! Ida, you need to stop!" Kaze tried to call out to her, even to the point of advancing towards the stage, but the guards held him back, growling a few words at him.

"Kaze, it's alright…! Ida will win. She might take a few points of damage, but she'll still win!" I offered some reassurance to the frazzled duelist beside me. Kaze didn't show any signs of hearing me though, instead focusing on the duel. From the looks of the board, Ida had just finished her first turn, summoning Marionette Mite in Attack mode with 1000 attack points. She also had one face-down. Her opponent seemed to be at a far greater level, however. He used a Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy her face-down before using Cyber Dragon's effect to Special Summon itself. He then Normal Summoned Proto-Cyber Dragon before using Polymerization to fuse the two into Cyber Twin Dragon. When he attacked Ida's Marionette Mite, he used an Honest from his hand to increase his monster's attack by Ida's monster's attack, raising it to 3800 until the End Phase.

"I told them I wanted someone who would present me with a challenge and I get presented with a toddler not even out of Duel Academy? Pathetic," the man growled as Ida let out a pained scream. At this point, Kaze couldn't seem to hold himself back. He made another dash for the stairs only for the same men to hold him back.

"Stop getting in my way! Don't you see Ida is going to get hurt?!" Kaze shouted at the seemingly emotionless men. I quickly joined him, trying to pry the men away, but to no avail. They clearly had been used to remaining firm like a statue to duelists who tried to escape the duel early. The shouting seemed to draw Ida's attention, though, as she turned around to face us. Her face was clearly contorted in pain and electricity was still sparking off of the devices. This was exactly what we feared…!

"Enough! End this, Cyber Twin Dragon!" Ida's opponent called out. The machine instantly began charging its attack, returning Ida's attention to the monster. The grey-haired teen quickly turned around and made a scramble to escape the beam. As soon as the virtual beam hit where she had been seconds ago, the shockers began to spring to life again. There was another ear splitting scream that caused Kaze and I to freeze. With the duel now over, the men stepped aside, allowing Kaze and I to run up to where Ida was collapsed.

"Ida…! Ida, hey Ida…! Come on…! Come on, wake up! This is no time for a hero to take a nap, right?" Kaze insisted as he knelt down and shook the teen's shoulders. There was no response. My chest began to tighten and I couldn't hold back the panic. We were late. We were too late. We were stupid. We should have told Ida everything. If we had, she wouldn't have dueled and she wouldn't even be in this situation…!

Suddenly, Kaze picked Ida up, making sure to be careful with her limp body. I tried to find the words to say, but nothing was coming out. I simply followed Kaze as he headed back towards our room, trying my best to ignore the whispers from the crowd. Once there, the brunette put Ida down on the bed, placing her head on the pillow for some extra comfort. I wasn't quite sure what I expected after that. I wasn't quite sure how I was even feeling then. It was just… numb. Surreal. Like it wasn't supposed to happen. Like I'd pinch myself and we'd be back at breakfast and Ida would join us, laughing at some heroic antic of hers, and everything would be okay. Ida was certainly annoying at times, but even so, I considered her a sort of friend.

A thud drew my thoughts together. I turned to Kaze, finding that he had just punched the wall. "I'll… I'll… He said you guys wouldn't wear shockers! So why…?" Kaze trailed off, the guilt clear in his expression. I couldn't ignore the traces of venom, however. I knew exactly what he was thinking. He was planning on going after Keisuke. While I was all for that, since Ida must have gone through him to get a duel, I wasn't for the idea of Kaze going alone in the enraged state he was in.

"Come on, Kaze. We're going to go talk to Keisuke," I said. Kaze looked up briefly before nodding and taking the lead. The first thing that I noticed was his hurried pace. While I didn't have to run, I still had to take fairly quick strides to keep up with him. Thankfully the bartender didn't seem to be that far away. In fact, he seemed to be headed toward our room himself.

"You said she wouldn't get hurt! You said she wouldn't wear the Shockers!" Kaze shouted upon seeing Keisuke. Keisuke quickly raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Hey, easy, Red, easy. I told her not to put the Shockers on," Keisuke said, taking us by surprise. So Keisuke was being truthful earlier after all…? Why would Ida even have the Shockers on then? The question seemed to be implied, as Keisuke continued on. "She heard that her opponent was using the Shockers, though, and insisted she had to use them for the sake of fairness. I tried to stop her, but she refused."

"You should have been more firm…! You should have told them to not even have it there! You shouldn't have even signed her up for a duel!" Kaze continued his assault on the bartender. The man didn't seemed phased, continuing on with a calm expression.

"Look, I didn't expect Queen to lose. I thought it'd be okay. The guy seemed like he was all talk. I didn't think things would go so bad. I already have someone coming to look after Ida. She got shocked quite bad," Keisuke said. He did what…? But… wasn't he the bad guy…? This was the same guy who was blackmailing Kaze into staying, so why would he take the initiative in getting a nurse or the like to come for Ida…?

"Even so, we're still going to stay by her side," Kaze said, possessing the same skepticism as me. Keisuke simply shrugged, sighing about something before leaving. Confronting the bartender seemed to take a load off of Kaze's shoulders, however, as his rigid stance relaxed. He then turned to face me. "Look, Aki, I… I'm sorry you had to see that… That was…" Kaze trailed off.

"It's okay. You were just worried about Ida's safety. We both were," I said. Seemingly comforted by my words, Kaze nodded, smiling softly.

"Excuse me," a soft voice began, drawing our attentions away from each other. There was a petite woman standing a few feet away from us with her hands clasped in front of her. "You would be Mr. Kokoro and Miss. Izayoi, correct?" she continued.

"Yeah. Are you the person Keisuke sent?" Kaze asked.

"That's right. My name is Makoto. If you would, please show me to where Miss Misaki is residing," the woman said politely. It was a bit of fresh air to know that there were truly a few good people in this dangerous system Keisuke ran. Without another word, Kaze and I turned and headed back to my room, just as we were planning to anyway. Once inside, Makoto instantly went to work, kneeling beside Ida's bed and checking her vitals. Kaze and I sat down on my bed, not knowing how long the check-up would take. After several seconds of silence, I turned towards Kaze, who was now sweating a bit due to his fear for Ida's condition, I assumed. The brunette seemed to notice my stare and glanced towards me so I gave him a small, reassuring smile just to say that everything would be alright.

"Well, all of her vitals are okay. There appears to be no permanent damage done to her body. With ample rest, Miss Misaki should be back on her feet in no time," Makoto reported as she rose to her feet. Kaze didn't say anything, which struck me as odd.

"Thank you. You can go now, if you'd like," I spoke up on his behalf. With a slight bow, the woman took her leave. Now without any distractions, I put my full attention on Kaze. The brunette had his hands clenched and was looking down at his lap. It was an all too familiar expression. "It wasn't your fault," I said.

"But it is! I should have told her what they did! I should have been more forceful getting up there to stop the duel! I could have used Brionac and stopped it, but I just stood there! I let another person get hurt!" Kaze was clearly pained as he spoke. I quickly stood up.

"Kaze, stop blaming yourself! Ida getting hurt was due to her own choices! You know you couldn't have stopped her!" I snapped.

"But I-"

"No! And even if you somehow did cause her to get hurt, do you think she'd blame you? Neither of us would blame you if anything happened! You've done so many good things for the world, Kaze… All the villains you defeated at your Duel Academy… You've saved the world so many times. You're truly a great person. You help people, you know you do. All the mistakes that you've made… don't you think all the good you've done counteracts that?" I questioned him. It wasn't that I was fed up with him blaming himself for things going wrong. No, that would be far too cruel after all he did for me. It was more that he shouldn't be blaming himself and being gentle wouldn't work in this instance. This sort of self-loathing took a sort of reality check, just as Kaze did for me when he told me about his past.

Kaze looked down once more, this time apparently feeling a bit ashamed. I tried to keep on my firm expression, but I knew it was faltering. After all Kaze did, I couldn't be mad at him, even if I was faking it.

"Kaze…?" the brunette looked up in surprise and I quickly spun around. There was Ida, still clearly pained, but turned towards us with her eyes barely open. Kaze quickly scrambled to his feet and ran over to Ida's side, grabbing one of her exposed hands.

"Ida, are you okay?" he quickly asked. Ida laughed for a bit before a wince appeared on her face, showing she was still quite wounded. Kaze's grip on her hand noticeably tightened.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you. You look like… like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders," Ida muttered. Kaze's eyes quickly fell once more. So even Ida realized it too…?

"I… It's… I'm the one who…" Kaze trailed off.

"No, you're not. There was nothing you could have done better, Kaze," I quickly asserted. Ida looked at me, her confusion evident. Eventually, she seemed to catch on however, and she turned her attention back to Kaze, giving his hand a weak squeeze.

"I already told you, you big teddy bear. I'll be fine. Don't worry. A hero would never go down from something like this!" Ida put on the best smile she could muster. Slowly, Kaze reciprocated the smile before nodding.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Just… get better soon, okay…? We're a team," Kaze murmured.

"Ha, of course. Though… I'm kinda tired, so I…" Ida's words faded off as she closed her eyes. Kaze gently pulled his hand away from Ida's as the teen let out a light snore.

So, all it took was Ida's reassurance that everything would be alright. At least Kaze was in better spirits. That was all that mattered.

"Aki," Kaze said my name suddenly, taking me by surprise. "I… Thank you. Thanks for that," Kaze continued.

"It's nothing. You would have done the same for me," I said earnestly. That in itself was part of the reason why I felt compelled to do everything I could to ease the burden Kaze carried.

"Of course I would. You're a close friend of mine. I'll always be there for you," Kaze smiled. A… close friend, huh? But how close? Compared to Rei Saotome, just who was I? A friend, a classmate, a person he simply shared a past with, or… I quickly stopped the thoughts right there. What was I even thinking about? Was now really such a time to be worried about a thing? Ida could have died and I was worried about petty things like that?

"Come on, let's go get some fresh air and let Ida get some quiet," I suggested for the both of us. We both probably needed to be away from the arena, and maybe a bit of air would rid my mind of the earlier notions. Kaze didn't seem to have any qualms with the idea, and so we headed out onto the streets. As far as I could tell, we really had no plans beyond that. Another bout of aimless walking to clear our heads of what happened in the underground. The underground… Keisuke… the video…

"Hey, Kaze," I said, making sure to rope in his attention from the stores before I continued, "where are we with the video? We've been so occupied with keeping Ida safe that we haven't looked into it anymore."

"Y-you're right," Kaze muttered, seemingly a bit surprised. He hadn't forgotten about it, had he…? What was I thinking? Of course he hadn't. "We need to find the video, that's a given. But… it's not necessarily the worst living here," Kaze said. Upon seeing me readying a rebuttal, Kaze quickly continued, "Don't get me wrong! You and I both know what Keisuke is really like. You saw it when he brought the video up. But since we're cooperating, he's treating us decently. I don't want to stay here forever, but since he's being tolerant for now, we ought to take things slow. Now that Ida is wounded, we should let her recover before doing anything." Well, when he put things that way, he had a bit of a point. So long as there wasn't an immediate threat, it would be better to spend a week safely getting the video than rushing to get it done in a day and possibly being caught in the end. While this was the case, the real problem was Kaze himself. Was he really okay with staying longer than needed…? I thought the plan was to escape as soon as possible.

"Alright… but if you ever need someone to talk to, I'll be there, like you said. You were always there for me, like after dealing with my parents," I said. There was a shift in Kaze's expression that I couldn't quite understand. His mind seemed to be placed somewhere else. Did something happen between him and my father that he didn't tell me? No, he would have told me anything important. "What are you thinking about?" I voiced my concern, pulling Kaze back into reality with a start.

"O-oh, I just got distract by the store over there," Kaze commented as he pointed behind me. I turned towards where he pointed, finding the store called The Candy Factory. Candy…?

"Are you hungry?" I continued to question him. Kaze jumped a little.

"Oh, no, no. I was just… I was considering getting Ida a get-well… thing from there," Kaze explained cautiously. Ah, leave it to Kaze to worry about someone else before himself.

"That's a nice thought. Sure, let's go get her something," I agreed. We then crossed over to the other side of the street before entering the store. The smell of chocolate and other sugary sweets quickly hit my nose. There didn't seem to be too many people in the store, but that may have been on account that it was still fairly early in the morning. The store's selection seemed to range from plain chocolate to fudge to decorative little pieces of candy.

"Um… What do girls even like?" Kaze questioned out of the blue. I tried to formulate a response, but I had never gotten chocolates for anyone else. I wasn't that picky when it came to food either, so it was hard to say what was actually good and what wasn't.

"Well, anything, I suppose. It's the thought that counts after all, right?" I asked in return.

"Hm… I guess you're right," Kaze muttered, nodding ever-so-slightly in agreement. The brunette then walked over to the display cases, sweeping over the many choices. Not wanting to intrude, I instead turned my focus on the pre-boxed chocolates on the other side of the room. There were tiny bags for kids with things like gummy bears and candy watermelon slices and then things for adults in a hurry like boxed gremlins and caramels. I briefly mused with the idea of buying something either for myself or Ida but eventually decided against it. Kaze was already buying something for Ida and I didn't need anything. The price wouldn't break the bank or anything. It was just that I couldn't think of a time when I would eat them, so it'd be a waste of money. I usually ate the three meals provided and no more.

Looking at the wares seemed to pass enough time, however, as Kaze thanked the clerk before walking back over to my side. That's when I noticed he had two boxes instead of one. "Could you not decide what to get?" I asked.

"No, I got one for you," Kaze said as he held out the top box towards me, taking me by surprise. I quickly felt my face heat up despite the attempts to quell it. What was he doing this for all of a sudden?

"You don't have to do that! You can have them," I quickly denied the gift.

"I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to. It's thanks for earlier, so please just take it," Kaze smiled. When he put it like that, I felt horribly rude to try and deny it again, so I took the box, mumbling a thanks under my breath. "So, let's head back. I'd hate for these to melt," Kaze commented, apparently oblivious to my inner turmoil. I didn't need to bring it to attention, however, so I simply nodded before tagging along after him.

Of course, leave it to Kaze to do something like this again. First the Golden Eggwich, now chocolates…? He had no reason to buy me these things, so why did he keep doing it? He didn't do this for Ida without a reason, as he did now, so why was he doing this for me? Just what went through that boy's mind when he did these kinds of things…?

When we arrived at the bar, Kaze held the door open for me as he always did. Keisuke was there, picking up after what we must have left from our breakfast. The man gave us a nod of acknowledgement and left it at that so we continued on our way to my room. We weren't expecting the door to be open, but neither of us pondered on it for too long. Inside, Ida was awake with her cards scattered around her on her bed. She wasn't up and about, so did someone come visit her while we were gone? Was it Makoto or Keisuke…?

"Oh, guys! Welcome back!" Ida greeted cheerfully, looking up from her cards for a split second. Kaze took this as his initiative and walked up to the side of her bed before kneeling.

"Here, I got these for you. They ought to make you feel better," Kaze said as he held out the remaining box for Ida to take. The gray-haired teen had the same reaction that I did, as her face quickly became splashed with pink.

"Wah, I knew it! You really are too sweet, you big teddy bear, you!" Ida shouted before quickly going to hug him, nearly sending the two sprawling on the ground. Ida quickly let out a hiss, probably since her body was still recovering, but that didn't stop her from continuing the hug.

"Ah! Your deck! Your cards!" Kaze exclaimed, drawing our attention to the cards that were now in a combination of on the floor and crumpled in the blankets. The brunette quickly dislodged himself from the hug before crawling around and gathering the cards. I quickly joined him while Ida collected the cards on the bed. In no time, we had Ida's deck back together and in her possession.

"You see, I was looking through my cards because I saw some flaws in my deck thanks to that duel. I didn't have enough of a counter attack. If I had more attack negating cards, maybe I could have destroyed his monster and won," Ida said.

"Can I help? I have quite a few cards and I could give you some pointers too," Kaze offered. Ida's eyes quickly sparkled with that eagerness of hers.

"That's be awesome! Thanks, Kaze!"

I let out a sigh, retreating to my bed rather than third wheeling. The two seemed to be in avid conversation about traps and their use along with monster to spell and trap ratio. I saw no point in following along since I was content with my deck as it was, so I turned my attention to the box of chocolates still in my hand. I had nothing better to do and I couldn't just let them go to waste since they were a gift from Kaze. I gently pulled the red ribbon away before lifting the lid. Inside there was decorative little chocolate roses.

Notes:

- Technically this story is supposed to take place in Japan, but as far as my research told me, they don't tell official get well items (like the traditional chocolate) and they actually usually give flowers and stuff. Kaze might have a panic attack in a flower garden though, what with all the choices/hidden meanings [Ex. Look at the one scene from Lives Beyond Jealousy and Revenge, which was kind of based on the fact that you can't choose flowers in Tag Force, you just get a bouquet]. All that being said, please just ignore cultural differences/pretend the Yu-gi-oh universe is more multicultural.

- Also, technically, Tag Force says Aki dislikes chocolates, but I imagine she wouldn't be picky at Da (I mean, look at the sandwich lottery situation. You eat what you get), but once she gets out into the world on her own, she chooses to not eat it since it isn't like a top food choice for her.

Reviews:

- Anonymous: Between you, me, and anyone who actually reads the review responses, Ida actually does end up using this line. It's in one of the upcoming chapters, but still. I figured that's amuse you. Justice Brigade powers, go!

- Lion Heart Leon: Keisuke is supposed to be a bit creepy/mysterious... To elaborate a bit, though, he isn't a total creep. Last chapter I mentioned that Keisuke had the trio register him in their duel disks, which is like the system in Tag Force where you can see where people are in the city without actually going in there. The first time, when they were saving Ida, Keisuke was being a total creep, stalking them from a hidden location, but in the case of the last chapter, he was watching their little chibi icon things, saw that Kaze was in a duel and the others were with him and figured that something was up so he showed up to crack heads. What he did with the people he took with him is up to your imagination... unless I get enough people asking about it.