I Am Become Death

by Masterdramon

For seven chosen individuals, death was but a new beginning; a chance offered by the Gods of old to join a mission greater than themselves, and to bring a final end to an inescapably chaotic world. Seven-part miniseries.

4. Part IV: Kiryu Kyosuke

I Am Become Death – Kiryu Kyosuke

Disclaimer: In case you haven't figured it out yet, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. All Yu-Gi-Oh!-related characters, settings, etc. are the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi.

[-]

Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music.
And death a note unsaid.

– Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

[-]

Kiryu Kyosuke's earliest distinct memory was coming across the Music.

That wasn't to say that Kiryu had no recollection of his life prior to the age of seven, but rather that Kiryu didn't much care about remembering those years. Kiryu had had parents, he was pretty sure of that…dull, boring people who weren't around very much, whose names Kiryu would probably be able to come up with if he had an ounce of interest in doing so.

As it was, Kiryu hadn't really felt as if he was genuinely living – or at least, living a life worthy of calling itself as such – until the night of May 27, 2011. It was a date that would go down in the history books a hundred different ways, but to the young Kiryu names like "Zero Reverse" held about as much meaning as the warning labels on mattresses. Sure, the title was technically attached to the event, but it didn't actually matter.

What did matter was that the world had fallen apart that day…and in its ruins had lain a single 12" vinyl record, the first and greatest incarnation of the Music.

But perhaps Kiryu was getting ahead of himself. Kiryu should really start at the beginning…best as he could barely remember it.

[-]

"Kiryu, dinner's ready!" Kiryu's Mother had shouted a few hours prior. At least, Kiryu was pretty sure that's what Kiryu's Mother had said. She'd certainly yelled something, and Kiryu had certainly had dinner afterward, so that seemed to follow logically.

In any event, Kiryu was 90% sure that he'd been eating…well, something or another…when it happened.

They had lived in a tiny apartment in an overcrowded, underserviced part of Domino City which Kiryu wouldn't have been able to identify now even if he stood right in front of it.

In those days, it'd been just Kiryu and that nice, raven-haired (or was it brown? – one of the two…) woman his mind called his Mother, and…come to think of it, he actually didn't remember anything about Kiryu's Father. Huh…who'd have thought it?

Was he dead? Had he run out on them? Was Kiryu's memory just that faulty these days? All distinct possibilities. But ultimately, if Kiryu simply couldn't remember Kiryu's Father at all, what were the chances that the man had ever actually mattered? Kiryu put the question out of his mind and got back to the distant reminiscing.

Anyway…food. Soup, Kiryu thought he remembered now. Or stew. What was the difference, anyway? Kiryu had never known.

But Kiryu knew it was liquid because he distinctly remembered it running down his little shirt, making a great big stain that would've made Kiryu's Mother scream her head off.

Wait…but she had screamed. And that wasn't soup or stew or whatever at all…unless it was tomato soup. Because it was red.

Blood…had to be.

She'd died instantly when the walls of their apartment had started to collapse around them from the shockwaves…right? Or had she lived for a few minutes after the rubble crushed her legs? Had she said anything to Kiryu?

Shit. Remembering stuff from before the Music was hard.

In any event, Kiryu had managed to get out of that building alive, somehow. Kiryu thought he remembered a hero in a white uniform helping him do so, but that could just as easily have been the product of his overactive imagination having watched way too many sentai shows.

Absent any other ideas on what to do, Kiryu had ended up walking west to the police station…or was it east, to Kiryu's favorite burger restaurant? Or was it west to Kiryu's favorite burger restaurant? Or east to…

Ah, fuck it. All this second-guessing and hedging was getting Kiryu nowhere…so he decided just to skip to the stuff that was actually clear.

Step Johnny was an aging musician and dancer – never famous, always an amateur, but people around the neighborhood knew him well enough. Dreadlocks, dark skin, open shirt (which was just wrong at his age, incidentally), he eventually became the owner and manager of CLOUD Voice Records, a little community record store that no one really gave a fuck about.

Indeed, Kiryu couldn't exactly explain how the place had managed to remain open into the year 2011…but if it hadn't Kiryu doubted he'd be around right now, so Kiryu wasn't complaining.

The store had been under a gas line, it appeared; it would explain the explosion that irresistibly drew his young eyes. The owner had died on impact – his cold, dead eyes staring up at Kiryu's face with an emptiness of purpose he'd grow very familiar with over the years.

Given that the store was half-demolished, Kiryu had little difficulty approaching the corpse, which lay buried under merchandise that'd cascaded down onto it during the chaos. Most of the discs were broken beyond hope of repair, but one had caught his eye: a worn, old vinyl record poking out from under Step Johnny's leg.

Johnny's blood was splattered across the b-side ("The Spider and the Fly," incidentally), but it came off easily enough with Kiryu's shirt. Not entirely knowing what he was doing, Kiryu nonetheless distinctly remembered his tiny fingers wrapping around the disc and taking it to a nearby gramophone…remarkably well-preserved, all things considered.

Getting the record to play had been…difficult, at first. Kiryu had only seen it being done once at that point in his life, and that was in some old movie; it wasn't like record players were particularly commonplace in the year 2011, after all. Kiryu knew that it seemed to have something to do with the needle-thing, but just touching it to the record didn't seem to have any effect.

Well, anyway…

Kiryu spared himself from outlining the rest of this laborious trial-and-error process (mostly because he didn't remember it much), and jumped right to the chase: the moment that needle touched the disc and the most wonderful sound ever recorded by humanity touched Kiryu's ears.

Those first few electric guitar chords…then the glorious bass coming in on the third note, resonating with such raw power with the lead…and finally, the unforgettable lyrics…

I dah dah no dah dah dah dah. I dah dah no dah dah dah dah.

Well…that's what it sounded like!

Kiryu was 7 and he'd lived in Japan all his life! How the fuck was Kiryu supposed to know any English?!

Yeah, okay, Kiryu's first experience with the Music had been pretty damn…meh. Kiryu was too young, far too young to appreciate such genius to its fullest extent.

But Kiryu was intrigued…and that was a start.

[-]

Kiryu lived out of that store for the next few weeks, scavenging food and other necessities from a busted-open convenience store a few blocks away and tucking it away in his little sanctuary.

No one came for Kiryu, nor the dead body that lay on the other side of the room. Kiryu dealt with the latter largely by trying not to think about it, which worked well as long as Kiryu clogged up his nose to avoid the smell.

With nothing else to do with what seemed like infinite stretches of time, Kiryu clung to the Music – both figuratively and literally. Kiryu slept under a coffee-stained towel he'd found in the convenience store and huddled next to the record player as it repeated that song on an endless loop, comforted by its soothing tones and high energy.

At that time Kiryu had no idea whatsoever what names like "The Rolling Stones" or "Mick Jagger" meant, and of course he still didn't understand the lyrics at all. But what did that matter? What did matter was that Kiryu had something to hold onto and call his own – and more than just a mere object, but an invisible, irremovable force.

It was something that made him better than the rest of the foraging scavengers; something that gave Kiryu power. And it all belonged to Kiryu.

So Kiryu listened. And Kiryu listened. And Kiryu listened some more. Occasionally Kiryu would rotate in other records, most of which he liked well enough…but Kiryu would always come back to his first by the end of the day. The others were music; beautiful music, even. But only one was the Music.

It was nearly three weeks before anyone decided to bother Kiryu within his sanctuary. Kiryu always slept with the Music on, of course, so when the record had abruptly stopped one night his eyes shot open immediately.

"Hey! Hey, let go!" Kiryu had shouted. For someone wrapped up in a heavy jacket had his hands around the record player, and was in the process of hauling it away.

"Kid, nothin' personal…but it's every man for himself now," the thief had said, pulling out a switchblade knife. "Dunno what this shit is, but it looks valuable to me. So either run along or I cut out your fucking throat!"

Now, keep in mind that Kiryu was still quite young and inexperienced when this occurred. If it happened these days, Kiryu would know exactly how to deal with someone like this…but back then, he'd been just another frightened child.

Still, unlike most of the other children left behind in the wake of that horrible night…Kiryu had something to lose.

So Kiryu shoved the man.

The thief clearly hadn't been anticipating such a young kid actually fighting back against him, so he hadn't bothered to plant himself at all as he held Kiryu at knifepoint. The upshot of this being that a single hard push sent him sprawling onto his ass…and his knife clattering to the ground, at Kiryu's feet.

Kiryu did not think about what he was about to do next. All that ran through Kiryu's head in that moment was that he was tired, and alone, and constantly hungry…that the Music was Kiryu's one source of comfort in this Hell-on-Earth, Kiryu's sole companion and friend…and that this bastard wanted to take it away from Kiryu…

There was a scream…and then silence.

The next thing Kiryu knew, the evil man wasn't moving to steal away the Music any longer. In fact, he wasn't really moving much at all.

Somehow…well, Kiryu had spent enough time next to a dead body, lately, to know when he saw one. Admittedly, Kiryu wasn't exactly certain how his would-be assailant had ended up a corpse, but Kiryu wasn't about to question his good fortune.

Still…Kiryu had to give it some hard thought. Clearly, Kiryu and the Music weren't safe here. Kiryu had gotten lucky this time, but there was no guarantee he'd be able to replicate the feat in the future.

So Kiryu picked up a blanket, and what food remained from his last trek to the convenience store, and placed them all in a sack. This Kiryu tugged behind in his left hand, dragging it roughly across the ground…and in Kiryu's right, of course, went the Music. The record player was very heavy, but Kiryu managed to keep his grip nonetheless.

Kiryu had to.

Kiryu had no idea how long he'd walked after that – a lot, was as much as he cared to think it out – but eventually he'd found himself a little hidey-hole beneath the stairs of an abandoned, partially demolished building. It wasn't easily visible, unless you were looking for something like it, and it was also warm…at least, compared to the outside air.

It was a safe place.

Kiryu lived there for weeks, largely relying on the same basic routine: robbing empty stores of food, eating that food, and listening to the Music until he fell asleep. It wasn't a great life, but it was his life, and no one was ever going to take it away from him.

But it was only a short while later that someone else tried.

"Hello? Is somebody in here? I thought I heard music," called out a female voice, sounding soft and warm.

Kiryu, for his part, tensed up; holding the record player close to him, Kiryu ducked down into a corner and tried to wait the stranger out. But she appeared to be insistent.

"My God…" said the woman as she entered the building and saw Kiryu huddled up, his clothes torn, grimy, and bloodstained. "Are you alright, child?"

"…Go away," Kiryu murmured, trying to shuffle away from her.

"Shhh…I'm not going to hurt you," she told Kiryu, slowly reaching her hand forward, trying to coax him out. "My name is Martha Okasama. I take care of children like you in my orphanage. You're a little older than most of my charges…but there's plenty of room if you'd like to come in out of the cold."

"No!" Kiryu shouted, apparently startling her with the sudden ferocity in his voice. "Stay away! Kiryu doesn't need you! Kiryu doesn't need anyone!"

"And how old are you, Kiryu?" she asked Kiryu.

Kiryu didn't answer the question. Kiryu just screamed some more.

"You can't be more than seven or eight, can you, Kiryu?" she pressed on nonetheless. "That's far too young to be out on your own. I can give you food, clothes, a warm bed…not to mention lots of new friends. Please, let me help you."

"Get away from Kiryu! Now!" Kiryu bellowed, before pulling something out of his pocket and rounding on her – the switchblade knife, extracted from the chest of the last would-be thief.

Martha immediately pulled her hand back, but did not leave. "You need to understand, Kiryu," she said, politely but firmly. "A child cannot live like this. You may have a weapon, but right now that means nothing. The world's falling apart, and I'm trying to do my best to provide a safety net for the kids left behind. I offer you one more chance…allow me to give you the same thing. You don't have to live in fear. You don't have to live alone."

"Kiryu's not alone!" Kiryu cried, making a lunge with the knife. She barely dodged in time to avoid a great gash across her leg.

"Kiryu's not alone! He's not, he's not, he's not!" Kiryu continued to scream as he took advantage of her stunned state to bound away, everything Kiryu owned under his arms. Kiryu ran for what seemed like hours (what well might have been hours…), until he absolutely couldn't run anymore, and at that point Kiryu collapsed in another abandoned building – this one looking much like an old barber shop.

"Kiryu's not alone…" Kiryu repeated, huddling under a shelf and pulling the record player close to him. With some effort he got it to work again, and the Music was restored to his life. Almost instantly Kiryu found himself overcome by the fatigue of escaping that awful, thieving woman.

"Kiryu doesn't need her…" Kiryu murmured. "Kiryu doesn't need anyone…"

Kiryu began to mouth the lyrics as they were belted out from the aged speakers; hundreds of repeated listenings had allowed Kiryu to learn them phonetically, even though he still had little idea what any of them actually meant. But one of the words, which recurred throughout the song, seemed to speak to Kiryu on a deeper level, where distinctions like "English" and "Japanese" were meaningless. And it was this word that Kiryu tried to pronounce as best he could, to explain – more to himself than anything – why that woman had known nothing of the way Kiryu's world worked.

"Only thing Kiryu needs is…" Kiryu whispered as he drifted off to sleep.

"…Satisufakushon," both Kiryu and the Music finished.

[-]

The next decade of Kiryu's life largely passed him by like a blur.

Kiryu hadn't been able to hide away in some dark hole with the Music forever, much as he'd wanted to.

And the reason for that was a whole bunch of cocksuckers who called themselves Security.

Now, Kiryu couldn't honestly say whether he preferred life before or after Kiryu's Mother died, but at least in the latter case he'd been master of his own course. No one told Kiryu what he could or could not do, and as long as Kiryu kept some food, his knife, and the Music with him, no one attempted to.

But Security was different. They didn't seem to like the lawless chaos that had overtaken Kiryu's entire world after that day. They wanted order imposed back on it – shiny, unremarkable, wretchedly boring order. And entirely on their own terms, of course.

They'd come riding in on their pussy-ass motorcycles one day, cordoning off areas Kiryu had been walking around for months and leading him and numerous nameless, faceless others by gunpoint into settlements or processing plants which were just being reengaged.

"Satellite" was the place in which they now resided, apparently. Stupid-as-shit name (not that Kiryu had any clue what the word meant, and he wouldn't have cared if he did)…but as for what it represented, Kiryu's feelings were decidedly mixed.

On the one hand, it was nice to have the permanent reminder that Kiryu was separate from those pampered asshats who lived across the bay that'd spontaneously appeared after that night. Kiryu had never actually been in that part of the city, not even when the two pieces of land were one, but if the rumors were true and the people there ate caviar and truffles and other fancy shit like that while Kiryu shivered in gutters, then his attitude was a decisive "Fuck 'em all!"

On the other hand, the name seemed to also imply some sort of camaraderie between Kiryu and his fellow residents of these shit-tastic slums, and Kiryu didn't really like that much either.

Kiryu hated other people as a matter of course these days; yeah, Kiryu hated Security and the fat-cats across the bay and people who smiled in the morning more than most, but that didn't spare the other members of the human race his general ire. When Kiryu would go to work in the factories – for under Security's reign, simply grabbing everything he needed from broken-down stores was frowned upon – there would often be other Satellite natives to Kiryu's side, trying to engage him in small talk or commiseration over their shared circumstances.

Kiryu didn't like that. Other people weren't like Kiryu, and Kiryu wasn't like other people. Kiryu had the Music, for one thing.

The now-aged record player was probably the best-taken-care-of piece of equipment on the entire island. What little remained of Kiryu's meager pay from factory work, after day-to-day food costs, went entirely into maintenance of the glorious machine. Kiryu had become a rather decent mechanic over the years, entirely through well-hewn practice, and much of that practice had been on repairing or replacing components of the record player as they inevitably broke, one after the other.

Kiryu never did have a consistent place to stay, in the strictest sense of the term; Kiryu and the Music simply migrated from hiding spot to hiding spot, moving whenever Security or one of their damn snitches got too near.

But whatever "laws" those bastards decided to force upon him, the Music remained…the one, constant link to a life beyond this shit, where Kiryu Kyosuke could just be Kiryu Kyosuke.

"Home" and the Music were synonymous.

[-]

"Find him!" the Security Officer yelled, as Kiryu bounded away for his life.

It was what Kiryu got for involving himself in the affairs of other people, Kiryu told himself. It'd been against Kiryu's better judgment, certainly. But the young man – now at seventeen years of age – wasn't sure he regretted it, even as Kiryu could hear gunfire some distance behind him.

It'd started simple enough. The Mystery Man had had no name, no voice…even his face was obscured by a helmet most of the time. The only thing that the other residents of Satellite had known of him was his goal.

It began with one steel pike, driven into the ground. Then another. Then a plank between them. For days the Mystery Man repeated that simple pattern, adding support beams at regular intervals…and before long the first several meters of what was unmistakably a bridge began to stretch toward the distant city.

The Mystery Man's unspoken plan was stupid; it was insane; it was impossible. And it wasn't like Kiryu actually cared if the two land masses were reconnected or not. People were people wherever they lived, and Kiryu didn't much like them either way. The Mystery Man included.

But Kiryu had come to watch the Mystery Man's solitary project each new day, all the same. Repetitive as the sight was, it was still far more interesting than working in a factory. And there was undeniably a draw in just how impossible the Mystery Man's goal was – if there was one thing Kiryu could appreciate in human beings, it was determination.

But when Kiryu emerged from the crowd of passive onlookers several days later, and alone out of all of them took up a hammer and joined the Mystery Man's grand vision, there was something much greater driving his actions.

A decade of life had done much to improve Kiryu's ignorance of the Music. Not only had Kiryu's record collection expanded tremendously (indeed, Kiryu doubted there was a single vinyl record in the Satellite outside his possession), but those songs that had first given his existence meaning were now understood in their fullest glory. Every lyric of the Music – and not a single English word beyond that – not only carried meaning with Kiryu, but quite literally defined his life.

And if there was one lyric that best encapsulated all of this, it was "Satisfaction."

"Satisfaction" had a few meanings, Kiryu had learned over the years. It meant to fulfill a deep need, or desire; it meant seeking pleasure, to compensate in a world determined not to permit him any; it meant using the honorable field of a duel to earn back what was taken from him, whatever the consequences.

This last definition was especially relevant these days, given Kiryu's increasing interest in the game of Duel Monsters. Another worker in the factory had introduced the cards to Kiryu, and Kiryu had wasted no time in slugging the guy and taking his deck for himself as soon as he got the chance. They weren't great cards, but they were Kiryu's, and such a thing was pretty rare under Security's oppressive regime.

But Kiryu was starting to get off track. The point was, "Satisfaction" summed up Kiryu's attitude toward life pretty much pitch-perfectly. For the past decade Kiryu had grown up in a shithole, and there was absolutely no indication that said shithole was ever going to improve on any real level. And if things weren't gonna get better, the only possibility left to Kiryu was to somehow satisfy himself with what he had.

So Kiryu found Satisfaction in the little things. In crushing an opponent into the dust with a duel; in smoking or drinking on the very rare occasions that Kiryu could procure such things; in discovering a new song and adding it to Kiryu's growing collection.

And now, it was in pounding a metal spike into the ground with a sledgehammer, leading by example in the construction of the most marvelous project ever seen by the eyes of Satellite. A project that, to reiterate, Kiryu couldn't give less of a flying fuck about and certainly didn't expect to work.

But so far as Kiryu was concerned, that didn't matter in the least. Whether the bridge succeeded or not was immaterial. What was important was that it was there…and that Kiryu's own two hands placed sweat and toil into its every plank and beam.

Which was why, when finally asked by the Mystery Man why he alone had come to his aid, Kiryu had spoken the only three words he ever said in the Mystery Man's presence:

"It…satisfies me."

Now, with all that being said…this whole story was rather derivative from the current point, which was Kiryu running for his life from those Security motherfuckers.

That they'd cracked down on the Mystery Man wasn't surprising in the least – Kiryu had always assumed it was only a matter of time, honestly. But while Kiryu hadn't been there to see it himself, grand rumors were now spreading about the Mystery Man realizing he was fucked and deciding to go out in a blaze of glory…driving straight off the incomplete bridge and off into the sky, as if attempting to touch the sun itself.

Personally, Kiryu was pretty damn sure that was bullshit. But one thing was for certain: the Mystery Man was gone without a trace. And with their primary mark out of their hands, Security needed someone to fill his cell.

Now, Kiryu had been only the first of many to help with the bridge over the past few weeks; still, it wasn't like Security could go about arresting fifty people for this. Not that Kiryu doubted those fascist pigs would try if they could, but even they had limits in manpower.

So it fell to Kiryu to be their scapegoat. No doubt they wanted to hogtie him and lock Kiryu in a cage like a dog, just so they could stick their heads even further up the asses of their superiors back in the city. Admittedly Kiryu had never been in prison per se, but he was pretty damn sure they wouldn't allow him to move around with the freedom Satellite offered.

And the Music…they'd keep him away from the Music. Kiryu just knew it. And Kiryu wasn't gonna let that happen, no sir-fuckin'-ree!

"Fuck you!" Kiryu shouted back at the uniformed cunts, wishing quite desperately that he had a gun or some other long-distance weapon. He couldn't fight any of them off with the knife without getting a whole lot closer, and with so many closing in Kiryu knew that'd be a death sentence.

But there was one thing Kiryu Kyosuke absolutely wouldn't do. Kiryu would not surrender to these motherfuckers.

And if that meant Kiryu would have to go down swinging…well then…

"C'mon, in here! Hide!" whispered a voice to Kiryu's immediate right, and Kiryu felt himself being pulled into a nearby building before he could react.

"Get off me!" Kiryu cried out, instinctively trying to wriggle out of the speaker's grip. "Get the fuck off!"

"That how you react every time someone saves your ass from Security?" scoffed another voice; it was dark in the building, so Kiryu couldn't make out the speaker. "I say we throw him back out there if he won't even give a simple 'thank-you.'"

"Eh, don't be such a douche, Jack. That's my job," quipped a third voice, who proceeded to snicker. Kiryu momentarily panicked, though he tried not to show it; just how many of these people were there?!

"Alright…looks like the coast is clear," said the first, who had obliged and released Kiryu's arm as he stared through slatted windows out onto the street. "Crow, you can turn the lights back on."

A moment later this "Crow" complied, and the room Kiryu had been roughly yanked into was illuminated for the first time. It was small, and fairly unremarkable; indeed, probably its only notable features were its three other occupants, all arrayed before Kiryu.

The one who had grabbed him, a young man sporting steely blue eyes and the most ridiculous hairdo Kiryu had ever seen in his life, held his hand forward. "My name is Yusei Fudo," he told Kiryu, before nodding to the others in turn. "Those are my friends, Jack Atlas and Crow."

"Jack Atlas" was a rather tall man with well-styled blond hair; "Crow" was a redhead in a beat-up vest. Both waved vaguely to Kiryu as "Yusei" asked him, "So, what's your name?"

"…Kiryu Kyosuke…" Kiryu murmured after a few moments.

"Nice to meet you, Kiryu," said Yusei. "So why were those Security Officers chasing you?"

Kiryu didn't answer for a while. Then…

"Satisfaction," Kiryu replied.

"The Hell does that mean?" Crow tossed off, casually cracking his neck. "That supposed to be Spanish or something?"

"It's English, you idiot," answered Jack, rolling his eyes. "Although knowing the language doesn't make what he said make any more sense."

"They tried to take away…my Satisfaction," breathed Kiryu. Though there was, strictly speaking, nothing preventing Kiryu from running out of there right at that moment, for whatever reason Kiryu felt he needed these people to understand. To really understand.

"Nothing's more important than Satisfaction," Kiryu continued. "Satisfaction's the only damn thing that brings happiness in this Hell we call a world. Hope's stupid, and only idiots rely on it. Instead of wishing for a dream of paradise that never comes, why not try and make the world around us something we can be satisfied with? It's simple, and it's obvious…and so those fuckers at Security will never understand it. That's why they chase me."

"A little rant-y, and not at all answering the question…but hey, I can't say he's entirely wrong," Crow admitted.

"You…you understand?" asked Kiryu, his eyes wide.

"I…guess…?" Crow replied. This caused Kiryu to burst into a long stream of laughter.

"Err…what exactly is happening here?" Crow questioned the others as Kiryu clapped him on the back, almost doubling over as he continued to laugh.

"Beats me. This one's all on Yusei," Jack said disinterestedly.

"Security has been going out of control lately," stated Yusei, shaking his head at the pair. "Firing into a crowded area like this to take down an unarmed target? I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. Not until I'd heard his side of the story, at least."

Instantly Kiryu's laughter ended, and his face became far more staid. "In that case…I…" Kiryu muttered, hesitating before finishing, "…Thanks."

It was the first time Kiryu could ever remember saying that word.

"Bit big on the mood swings, isn't he?" Crow wondered aloud, though while his tone was flippant Kiryu could tell he was genuinely concerned about it.

While it was true that Kiryu tended to dislike other people on principle, that didn't mean that he couldn't read them exceedingly well. And though these people didn't exactly trust Kiryu (even the one called "Yusei," though he was more receptive than the others), Kiryu didn't sense the hostility or selfishness he'd come to expect of those who didn't understand as he did. Who weren't versed in the Music; who didn't seek Satisfaction as a matter of course…

These were people. People who weren't Kiryu. And yet Kiryu wasn't bolting away from them. In-and-of-itself, that was an astounding revelation.

Not only did Kiryu want them to understand; now Kiryu realized that they could understand. It wasn't from anything they'd said, or done…it'd been wordless, an exchange of hearts and minds that'd taken place the moment Yusei had grabbed his arm, though Kiryu hadn't realized it at the time…

Just like the Music.

"I…I apologize for how I might've just come off," Kiryu said, reaching farther than he ever had before to find the right words. "I don't…talk to people…very much. It confuses me."

"Come on. Surely you must talk to someone," replied Jack.

"Other people always seem so…ugh," Kiryu told him, as if that fully explained everything. "They don't like me, I don't like them; we stay away from each other. That's how it's worked all my life. But…but you guys…"

Kiryu didn't complete the sentence, but did something even rarer for him than speaking in the company of others. Sincerely and unabashedly, Kiryu smiled at them.

"Let's…talk," Kiryu added cheerfully, still choosing his words with the utmost care. "I'm starting to get the feeling this day was…meant to be."

[-]

In what seemed like no time at all, Kiryu found himself integrating into the trio's long-established friendship…and far more surprisingly, Kiryu was actually enjoying it.

Yusei was the only one who opened up to Kiryu instantly; Kiryu got the distinct sense that the teenager dispensed trust as freely as Kiryu dispensed obscenities. Normally that sort of attitude would drive Kiryu nuts, but for reasons he couldn't quite explain to himself, nothing could be father from the truth.

Indeed, if anything, Kiryu found the sentiment almost…infectious.

"Trust" wasn't really a word in Kiryu's personal lexicon, but as close as he could approximate it, Kiryu felt it for Yusei. The young man was impeccably sincere, wise beyond his years, and generally about the most sickeningly good guy Kiryu had ever run across. Except, perplexingly, without the "sickening" part. Kiryu couldn't help but like the kid.

The two also had the most in common. None of them were really much for the Music, which had initially distressed Kiryu…but Yusei at least was willing to give it a shot, which was a start. And though his understanding of English was decidedly tenuous, he did seem to grow to appreciate having it in the background while they were hanging out. His favorite of Kiryu's records, based purely on the beat, seemed to be "My Generation."

Like many things, Kiryu laughed at that.

Beyond that, both Kiryu and Yusei shared an inclination for just about anything mechanical; indeed, though Kiryu considered himself fairly talented for someone who was completely self-taught on exactly one device, Yusei's knack for turning junk into engineering marvels seemed to border on that of a savant.

As the weeks passed by and Kiryu found himself moving in with the trio without anyone really formally declaring that he could or should, most of Kiryu's days ended up being spent in an abandoned garage Yusei had converted into something of a workshop – the Music playing on loop as the two took whatever raw materials they could find and made treasures beyond compare.

It was a beautiful process. Kiryu wasn't even entirely sure how to put it into words, beyond just describing the bare facts – the axel grease on their faces, the intricate dance of handing tools to one another in total silence, the incredible glow in Yusei's eyes when they were finally able to bask in the Satisfaction of completion…

But one thing was for certain: the entire thing made Kiryu happier than just about anything else in this whole damn world. It was the Music given form.

Comparatively, his relationships with Jack and Crow developed far more…slowly. It was never exactly icy between them (at least, apart from the one time Kiryu had made the grave error of consuming one of Jack's precious ramen cartons), but there wasn't that instant spark – that "click" – that there'd been with Yusei.

Part of it was the personalities involved, of course. Jack was standoffish at the best of times, and Crow was…Crow. There really wasn't a better description for the guy, other than that they just plain didn't hit it off well at the start. But he was friendly at most times, if more than a little rude. And his dirty jokes were the best out of the four, Kiryu had to admit.

One factor did tie the group together from day one, however: their love for the game of Duel Monsters. The others had been playing for years, mostly with each other and entirely with cards acquired off the streets. Well, that wasn't entirely true, Kiryu amended; most of Crow's deck came from some old dead guy, and while the other two hadn't been so lucky, each held at least one card that was probably rare even for those dipshits across the bay.

Stardust Dragon and Red Dæmon's Dragon were proof that at least some worthwhile crap got dumped here occasionally, Kiryu supposed. They sure as Hell beat the shit out of anything in Kiryu's deck right now, anyway.

Not that Kiryu was all that bitter about it. Honestly, though Kiryu wasn't about to shout it out loud, he was mostly just grateful to have people to play with at all. Collecting the cards solo could definitely be fun, but it was like the Music; sharing the experience made the whole thing more…complete, Kiryu guessed was the right word.

In any event, the upshot of all this was that for the first time in his entire life, Kiryu was capable of saying the sentence, "I have friends."

And indeed Kiryu did, apropos to nothing, during one morning about a month after they first met. Nothing else was really going on – Crow and Jack were playing a duel on the floor, while Yusei was futzing with the wiring on an engine they'd recently salvaged – so the simple, matter-of-fact statement grabbed all of their attentions.

"Yeah. And what of it, dumbass?" tossed off Crow, not looking up from the game. A few weeks ago Kiryu would've punched his lights out for speaking to him like that; the fact that Kiryu had no urge to do so now came as a pleasant surprise. Kiryu expressed this in laughter, as he did many things.

"I fail to see what's so funny," said Jack, also not looking away from the field. "And incidentally, Crow, switching Battle Positions on my turn is illegal."

"Of course you wouldn't, Jack," replied Kiryu, holding back a further spurt of guffaws as the watched the red-faced Crow pull back his hand. "You don't have a sense of humor. And I love ya for it."

"The word 'platonic' had better be implicit in there," Jack warned dryly. "Not that I have any problem if you swing that way…but contrary to certain idiotic rumors, I do not."

"You tell him, Jack!" Crow exclaimed as he activated Black Whirlwind. His opponent groaned; this invariably meant the beginning of one of the redhead's infamous five-minute combos. "I mean, where could they even possibly be getting stuff like that? Just because a guy likes to dress in purple and work on his abs and say every single sentence like he's on stage in a musical…not to mention the fuss he throws anytime someone messes with his hairdo…"

"Oh, give it a rest, Crow," snarled Jack, irritably flipping over both a Trap and a Spell. "Shockwave destroys that Armor Master you just Summoned and inflicts damage to us both equal to its ATK; Ring of Defense shields me from my share of it. Which means you lose. Have a nice day."

"I…uh…wait, what?!" yelled Crow. "What the fuck, man! I had this whole big turn planned, with three Synchros and everything!"

"And now you don't. Sucks to be you," Jack quipped back. This elicited a renewed burst of laughter from Kiryu.

"Okay, I take it back. Maybe you do have a sense of humor after all," Kiryu told him with a smirk. "It just doesn't work like most people's."

"In all fairness, neither does yours," piped up Yusei. Kiryu, predictably, just laughed more at this; the teenager was quite right about that, of course.

After a few more moments of mirth, however, Kiryu's expression turned more somber. Kiryu could tell Crow was made a little bit nervous by the sudden shift in mood, while Jack didn't even seem to notice…but Yusei just kept staring back at Kiryu, with those warm, warm eyes.

"I just…want to let you three know how much this means to me," Kiryu said, inhaling deeply. "This isn't easy for me to say, but I feel like I've really got to. All my life, I've been alone. Just me, the Music…and the search for Satisfaction. But you guys…you've really started to change that. When I'm here, I'm…I'm more than just me."

"That's what having friends is like, Kiryu," Yusei told him, placing a reassuring hand on Kiryu's shoulder. "Trust me, we all learned that the hard way. But growing up with Martha…I guess we were taught you just didn't really get that far trying to walk alone."

"Who's Martha?" asked Kiryu.

"Martha Okasama," offered Crow. "She's the woman who raised the three of us; runs the only orphanage in Satellite. Great lady…if kinda strict."

"She was only 'strict' with you when you were acting like a moron. Which in your case was pretty much daily," Jack rejoined.

"Wait a second…" murmured Kiryu; a memory was starting to stir. "She…wouldn't happen to have long brown hair and dark skin, would she?"

"That's her," said Yusei. "Have you met before?"

"I…" began Kiryu, before he stopped himself. Inwardly Kiryu could feel his temper rising as he remember the stupid old hag, the image of her reaching to take Kiryu away from the Music searing itself into his brain. But something was strongly telling Kiryu that these weren't thoughts he should really be broadcasting right now.

"I…err…no. No we haven't," Kiryu finally answered. "I just overheard some other guys mention her name and show a picture a while back, that's all. I don't remember the context."

The others nodded in accedence to this rather boring version of events, before returning to the activities that had been occupying them previously. Kiryu, for his part, went out onto the street and let out a sigh of relief.

It'd been the first time Kiryu had ever lied to his only friends. And it wouldn't be the last.

[-]

The idea for Team Satisfaction, more than anything else, had come about because Crow stole some beer.

That the redhead had extremely fleet fingers was a well-accepted aspect of his character, and in any event stealing in the Satellite didn't have quite the same connotations that it did elsewhere (or what Kiryu assumed it did elsewhere, anyway; it wasn't like he had anything to compare it to). It wasn't uncommon for one of them, when funds were low, to distract the owner of a convenience store or outpost while Crow helped himself to whatever foodstuffs or other supplies caught his birdlike eye.

Kiryu thought he was pretty damn good at the task, incidentally. Kiryu could be quite talented at charming or manipulating others with his tongue, especially considering that Kiryu hated most all of them on sight.

Such as it was today – they were both thirsty and their hideout was a fair distance away, so Kiryu was currently chatting up a liquor store owner about his kids (or something like that…Kiryu was mostly just smiling and nodding) while Crow snuck over to the back and nabbed a case.

"…And now that she's turned thirteen, all the local boys are after her," the older man said with a grimace. "Worst part is that she's just letting 'em. Not 'cause she's actually interested, but 'cause she just wants to screw with me."

"Kids, huh?" replied Kiryu, knowing from experience that such a vague platitude would spur the owner into another few minutes of pointless prattling. Which was all they needed. Just a simple case of get-in, get-out…

"Get down on the ground and put your hands on your fucking heads!" cried a voice from the entryway, punctuated by a burst of gunfire. "And you two, load up all the shit you can carry! I want this place cleaned out in five!"

…Or not.

"Traditional" guns and other ranged weaponry was a rarity in the Satellite; Security kept a very tight hold on such products, and while leaks and black market dealings certainly weren't unheard of the vast majority of the island's peoples had probably never even touched a firearm.

But comparatively, mod kits to turn Duel Disks – a ubiquitous item even in the worst slums – into guns or explosives could be found just about anywhere; Hell, anyone with an internet connection could probably just look up how to do it themselves. It definitely wasn't hard, nor overwhelmingly expensive. Finding ammunition was usually the only tricky part.

The upshot of this was that – especially in the parts of the Satellite where the old Yakuza families had little to no presence these days – the streets were largely ruled by "Duel Gangs": punks with modded Duel Disks and powerful decks who staked out territory through protection rackets, assassinations, and (as in this case) good old-fashioned robbery.

The Duel Gang now in the process of shaking down the liquor store was known as Team Golem. They'd been a legitimate Pro-Dueling team, once upon a time, or at least their founders had been…but everyone on this side of Zero Reverse had inevitably been transformed by it, and these days Kiryu felt all the gangs pretty much blended into each other, regardless of origin.

Kiryu, for his part, stayed away from the sons-of-bitches as much as was possible, and generally it worked; unless you were going around bragging about your dueling prowess or some shit like that, and kept your head down during "transactions" like this one, most of the gangs were content to leave you alone. Crow was already motioning for Kiryu to follow him in sneaking out and leaving this fucker to his fate.

But something was different today.

"Hey, douchebags!" Kiryu called out suddenly, to Crow's immense surprise and alarm. "You do realize coming in here and waving those things doesn't make your dicks grow any bigger, right?"

"The fuck do you think you are?" demanded the gang leader, brandishing his weapon.

"Someone who isn't scared by fucking pussies," Kiryu replied, cracking his knuckles. "Look, I don't got any problem with stealing a few beers. But cleaning this whole place out at once? It's gonna shut down. And then there won't be any booze left in this neighborhood. Those bitches in Security control the shit tightly as is."

"Well…guess you do have a point there…" the man admitted, his barrel lowering slightly.

Which was all the invitation that Kiryu needed to leap at him and sock him in the jaw.

What happened next could only possibly be described as a "motherfucking epic beatdown." With their leader out like a light in one hit the other Team Golem members panicked, and Kiryu dove at the others in their confusion, chortling jovially as their blood began to stain his fists. Having no idea why Kiryu was doing this but knowing they were past the point of no return, Crow shrugged and joined him.

The result was that in a few moments, about a dozen members of Team Golem lay sprawled on the ground, most of them sporting broken bones and all of them completely unconscious.

Kiryu, for his part, was panting…but in a good way, and with a smile to match. After months of relatively "normality" (or whatever passed for it here in Satellite), it'd been so…invigorating to just let loose and kick some ass, and the fact that these bastards deserved it just made the prize all the sweeter.

"God, man! Warn a guy next time before you jump dudes with enough bullets to kill us a hundred times, 'kay thanks?" exclaimed Crow, his arms crossed as he propped the last member to go down against a wall.

Kiryu did not answer this, however, as the cowering shopkeeper slowly emerged from beneath his till and timidly addressed Kiryu. "Th…Thank you, young man," he said. "I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't saved me."

Kiryu gave a snort of derision at this. "I didn't do it for you," he hissed, kicking the man in the gut to emphasize the point. Then he motioned for Crow to grab a few cases and follow him out.

"So wait…if you weren't defending that guy, why the fuck did you pull that stunt?" asked Crow as they departed from the busted-up liquor store.

"Satisfaction," answered Kiryu with a smirk, adding nothing else.

[-]

"So here's how I see it, guys," Kiryu told Yusei, Jack, and Crow that night, a very rough sketch of the Satellite splayed across the table. "I've tried to draw the various Duel Gangs' territories as closely as possible. And if you combine them all with the sections of the island those Security pigs have under their greasy thumbs…"

"It's nearly the entirety of Satellite," Jack finished for him, before crossing his arms and looking away in disinterest. "But what's your point?"

"My point is that this whole island is a fucking Hellhole because of these guys," responded Kiryu. "I'm tired of it, you're tired of it, we're all fucking tired of it! But nobody does anything about it! We all know this place would be way less shitty if they were taken out, so…"

As if to finish the sentence, Kiryu strapped on his Duel Disk and pressed a switch to demonstrate his latest self-installed mod – a steel cord designed to stop fleeing gangmembers in their tracks.

"Nice, huh?" Kiryu said to them, looking smug. "I configured it all myself. I'm also working on a short-range jamming device that should disable weaponized Duel Disks…that way, the fuckers will be forced to stand and fight instead of running like pussies. And ya wanna know the best part? The moment they get their asses handed to them, this cord will deliver a shock strong enough to blow their Duel Disks to fucking pieces!"

"And again…what exactly would be the point of this?" asked Crow. "I'm all for picking fights and having fun as much as the next guy, but…"

"The point is liberating Satellite!" Kiryu exclaimed back, jabbing his fist at the makeshift map. "Everyone lives in fear of the Duel Gangs…and of Security. Best hope they've got is dreaming of a way off this island…and fat lotta good that does, since it ain't fucking happening unless you can pay a shitload to one of those traffickers."

"Doesn't mean you can't waste your life wishing for it…" Jack murmured under his breath; Kiryu heard it, but paid no heed.

"Nah, what we've gotta do is get people thinking in a whole different mindset," insisted Kiryu, his hand gestures becoming more and more exaggerated as his passion visibly rose. "It's not about getting the fuck out. It's about satisfying yourself with what's around you. And if what's around you makes that impossible – say, because Duel Gangs are beating up every third guy on the street and jacking his shit – then…"

Without warning, Kiryu jabbed his trusty switchblade into one of the largest territories on the map – that of the infamous Magician's Four.

"…Well, then, you just take care of the problem right there," Kiryu finished, beginning to laugh giddily. Kiryu was quite pleased with how this "presentation" was going so far.

There was silence for a few minutes following this, before Yusei finally broke it with a quiet, "Alright…let me see if I've got this straight, Kiryu. You want us to go around, beating down Duel Gangs on their home turf…and crossing our fingers that they don't come back? Because I really don't see how that would work."

"No, no, no," replied Kiryu with a smirk, patting Yusei playfully on the head as he did. "We're going to make sure they don't come back. By becoming a Duel Gang ourselves!"

"Err…wait, what? How exactly does this solve the problem, again?" Crow asked confusedly.

"Well, someone needs to control that territory," Kiryu argued, again jabbing his finger at the map on the table. "If only to make sure it doesn't fall back in the hands of someone who'll fuck it back up again. So why not us? We're all badass duelists, we work well together, and we've all got Satellite's best interests at heart."

Seeing that they still weren't convinced, Kiryu drew himself up to full height and began speaking with grand gestures and high energy. "Think about it, guys!" Kiryu implored them. "Once we show that nobody can challenge us, we'll be able to take over the whole damn island! And once we're running the show, we can lay ground rules. We can make sure the big money goes to good stuff, like…orphans and shit. And we can clean these streets…stop people from getting hurt. Who'll do it if we don't?"

"I guess you've got a point there," Yusei conceded, though he still seemed a little reticent. "Security should be handling the Duel Gangs, but they're not. Not well enough, anyway…"

"And what? That fucking surprises you?" asked Kiryu with a snort. "Those pigs wouldn't lift a finger if every single Duel Gang shat in their backyard at once. Someone needs to put them in line, and it's not those fucktards with Security. It's gotta be us."

Crow, who had gone very quiet since Kiryu mentioned the word "orphans," suddenly nodded at this. "You know this plan is totally insane, right?" he said, sighing. "But…well, I hate to admit it, but it makes sense. So I guess I'm in, if the rest of you guys are too."

Jack shrugged his shoulders, his expression indifferent. "Well, it sure beats the Hell out of sitting on our asses doing nothing," he declared. "Besides, someone has to stick around to keep you two in line. It'd make things weird around here if you went and got yourselves shot up."

Kiryu laughed and clapped his friends on the shoulders at these words…but Kiryu's eyes rested firmly and totally on another's.

This whole plan meant nothing if Yusei rejected it. And despite his earlier words, the face of the youngest member of their group remained utterly unreadable.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of held breath, Yusei Fudo tilted his head slightly upward, so that his stoic gaze might meet Kiryu's impassioned one directly…

And gave a small, silent nod.

Kiryu wept tears of joy that day.

[-]

The first few months went fucking amazingly.

Since the whole thing had been Kiryu's idea, the others had deferred to him in such matters as team name and uniform. The latter had been simple enough – matching vests that firmly cemented their badassery were more than plenty – and as for the former…well, it was as much of a no-brainer as Kiryu could ever remember anything in his life being.

"Team Satisfaction." The Music given life in the bonds they forged. Four friends tethered together for all of eternity, like four power chords synchronizing in perfect harmony…

That was the truth that Kiryu was intent on living. And it was a truth Team Satisfaction was more than willing to back up with action.

The relatively calming influences of Yusei and Jack, Kiryu was forced to admit, did keep him from committing some rather terrible blunders in that initial era of conquest. Kiryu's natural instincts had drawn him immediately to the Magician's Four as their first target – what could be more satisfying, after all, than taking out the most influential Duel Gang in all of Satellite right off the bat? – but this decision was handily overruled, in favor of taking on some smaller fish first.

And so yeah, the Satisfaction derived from their defeats wasn't quite the high Kiryu had been hoping for. But damn was it fun in the moment, nonetheless.

They practiced quite a few set strategies and maneuvers, communicated to each other through hand signals or a crude link system Yusei installed in their Duel Disks. Designed to isolate individual gangmembers and duel them into submission one-by-one, these tactics were acted out so many times over that Kiryu had lost count. All four acting like a well-oiled machine, Team Satisfaction proceeded to take out one Duel Gang after another, with nary even a worthwhile challenge in sight.

It'd begin small. One of them would volunteer to serve as bait – usually either Yusei (as the youngest) or Crow (as the smallest in stature). Jack was the only one who point-blank refused to fulfill the role; Kiryu himself liked to get in on the action from time to time, since after all, one could never have too much practice bluffing.

Regardless of who was playing possum that day, though, the result was largely the same: a bunch of thugs would close in, thinking they'd found an easy mark that mistakenly wandered into their territory…and at the last second, get their asses ambushed from the back.

The duels themselves, once the steel cords and hacking software made sure their opponents couldn't escape, were pretty much foregone conclusions. To date Kiryu had only seen Team Satisfaction lose once…and given that Crow had been dueling four-on-one at the time and had one-turn-killed the other three just beforehand, Kiryu was willing to cut the dude some slack.

Their first real challenge came when they entered the territory of Team Golem. Impatient pretty much by nature, Jack had gone ahead while everyone else was asleep and decided to take out virtually the entire gang single-handedly…and more to the point, he came very close to succeeding.

But the gang leader had pulled out an ancient revolver right the fuck out of nowhere – which, of course, had no software to jam – as soon as their duel began, and so it was pretty much a miracle that Jack Atlas was still standing today. The rest of the Team realized where Jack had gone and saved his ass just in time, but it was definitely a closer call than Kiryu ever wanted to experience again.

From then on Kiryu had modified Team Satisfaction's Duel Disks even further, adding a number of redundant systems as well as a tracking device. By that point they were certainly some of the most advanced tech in the entirety of Satellite, and Kiryu was damn proud of them.

Weeks passed by, and those weeks turned into months; fucking glorious months. Every few days another sector of the island was colored in black, symbolizing their dominance over the land and the duelists that stood upon it.

Word spread rapidly: if you had a Duel Disk, you could bet your ass that the best damn duelists in Satellite would be coming after you soon. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow…but Team Satisfaction always came eventually. Pretty soon the streets were littered with ruined Duel Disks and discarded cards, and Kiryu gave a fresh burst of laughter every time he crushed them beneath his feet.

Many of the Duel Gangs – Team Yakyu and the Kimono Gang, for example – had gotten out of the game, period, after Team Satisfaction drove them out. Clearly, trying to reform after an ass-kicking like that wasn't worth it to the smallest of the small-fry.

Others, like the Sakana Gang or the Discothèque Trio (and yes, there was actually a gang that went by that name, to Kiryu's eternal bewilderment; after all, disco sucked balls), tried to take back their territories on at least one occasion.

But while the four of them obviously couldn't police every sector 100% of the time, they'd scared shitless more than enough of the people in the streets that the general response to such attempted takebacks was, "Fuck y'all, I'm sticking with the new guys."

…Paraphrased, naturally.

[-]

The day they finally ended the Magician's Four had been a watershed moment for Team Satisfaction; Kiryu had been building it up in his head ever since they'd started this whole thing, and he knew it'd make for quite the coup for their reputations as well. The Magician's Four were well-known for being some of the hardest motherfuckers in Satellite, holding a near-complete monopoly on the illegal smuggling of both Duel Monsters cards and heroin.

On this island, it was hard to say which product was more coveted.

Crow had been the bait this time, although he'd been discovered a little before they'd planned…meaning the other three needed to high-tail their asses to the warehouse where all Four had ganged up upon their friend.

Fortunately, Crow's quick thinking – he always had been the tricky one – allowed him to activate the tracking device in his Duel Disk without the gang noticing, and by the time they finally did Yusei, Jack, and Kiryu were right on top of them.

"Hey, Magician punk! I'm taking you on!" Kiryu said as he strode confidently up to their leader. The others were occupied elsewhere by Kiryu's friends, but this fucker had tried to run…which was just fine with Kiryu. Kiryu always loved crushing the runners.

The guy looked about ready to piss his pants. "D…Damn you!" he cried, backing away.

"Leader of Team Satisfaction, Kiryu Kyosuke, at your service," Kiryu told the man, drawing his Duel Disk with a flourish. "Now…satisfy me."

The cord snapped around his Duel Disk before he'd even realized Kiryu fired it. "Let's duel!" Kiryu added with a relish.

The Magician's Four leader narrowed his eyes, before mirroring Kiryu's activation of his Duel Disk and shouting, "Okay, kid…you're asking for it! Duel!"

But though he made a few impressive moves – he had particular skill for the manipulation of Spell Counters – the gang leader soon proved to be as much of a joke as the rest. A few well-placed Traps and the duel was over in minutes.

"Do you hear those screams in the other room, you little shit?" Kiryu asked the duelist, smirking with oh-so-sweet Satisfaction at the smoke emerging from his now-useless Duel Disk. "The Magician's Four is going down for good tonight, as we speak. Just one more stepping stone on the road to Team Satisfaction ruling this island."

"You're a fucking moron if you actually think that's possible," Kiryu's opponent grunted, seething with anger as he gazed upon the worthless hunk of metal on his arm. "You're riding high now, bastard…but it'll all crash down one of these days. We'll be back, and so will Team Golem, and so will the Sakana Gang. We've been running these fucking streets for years, and no poser faggots are just gonna come in and…!"

This sentence was not completed, however, on account of Kiryu kicking the man in the ribs, hard enough to fracture a few.

"That was the old song. Newsflash: Satellite's got a new headliner," Kiryu quipped, before aiming another kick.

The duel had been over too quickly, Kiryu reflected in that moment, as his hand shot toward his waist. This certainly helped.

Anyway…

A few moments later, Kiryu was looking furtive as his friends rejoined him, but Kiryu's expression turned jovial as they each confirmed that the supposedly invincible Magician's Four had crumpled like wet toilet paper.

"We did it, guys!" Kiryu said with a smirk, and his teammates bumped fists with him in response. Kiryu took one last brief look back, before taking his friends by the shoulders and leading them out of that now-silent warehouse.

Kiryu just didn't have the heart to tell them the son-of-a-bitch had gone and tried to ruin their victory by stabbing himself to death. Not when they were all clearly so happy – as was Kiryu, of course – to finally have full control of Zone D.

Some people were just sore fucking losers…

[-]

Taking down the Magician's Four had turned out to be the turning point. Whole sectors of the island actually began to come to them to surrender their territory, figuring it'd be less humiliating if they at least took the initiative.

Kiryu never let them get away with pussying out like that, of course. They always got a fair duel regardless.

And naturally, they always lost.

Black marker covered more and more of Kiryu's map almost every day, the designations Yusei had drawn up for organizational purposes falling so rapidly that Kiryu could scarcely keep up with them. Zone A, Zone E, Zone L, Zone X, Zone Z…they all blended together in Kiryu's mind, but ultimately it wasn't the letters that mattered.

It was the Satisfaction, and that never failed to deliver.

Still, one letter did stand out from all the rest…and that was "M."

Zone M was the largest territory on their map by a fair margin, and more-or-less smack dab in the center too. Kiryu couldn't help feeling like they were nipping around the edges of the place at all times, but it could not be helped; Jack and Yusei were insistent that it be taken on last.

The soon-to-be-deposed rulers of the sector were known as Team Aerospace. Or maybe it was Team Aviator? Kiryu seemed to recall that they changed it once or twice.

Well, whatever they were called, they weren't exactly the masters of illicit trade that the Magician's Four had used to be. Mostly they just held as large a territory as they did by sheer numbers. Unlike most Duel Gangs, which were stratified by family lineage, anyone could join Team Who-The-Fuck-Cares, so long as they did what the head honcho said when required; otherwise, membership was basically a blank check to run rampant across Zone M.

As might be expected in a poverty-stricken slum…this was a pitch that got a lot of takers.

Still, Kiryu wasn't worried. As the four of them strode confidently into enemy territory and dozens of duelists began to surround them on all sides, Kiryu's only response was to chuckle and say, "I don't see any harm. Any less than this and we wouldn't be satisfied. Now…duel!"

It was the ultimate test of their skills, and fuck yeah did they deliver. Kiryu watched approvingly as Crow roped in a record four opponents into a single duel, only to beat them all before the last one had even drawn a card; Kiryu smiled even more at Jack, who dashed across the area and pulled the duelists one-by-one into a forced sprint, striking each one down in less than a minute and pulling another in without a word.

That was Jack for ya…even on foot, he acted just like he was in a Riding Duel.

Yusei, meanwhile, had raced after their leader. Kiryu gave a howl of laughter and followed at a casual pace, picking off every straggler he could find as Yusei cut through their forces like a well-aimed arrow.

About half an hour later, however, Kiryu began to think that perhaps Yusei had been shooting too far ahead. Kiryu hadn't seen a trace of his best friend since they first entered Zone M, and though Kiryu was having the time of his life stomping the low-level mooks into the dirt, part of him was starting to get concerned.

That was when Kiryu heard the scream.

What happened to Kiryu in that moment wasn't anything he'd ever before experienced. Conscious thought was no longer driving his actions – Kiryu simply sprinted out onto the rooftop and toward the sound, just in time to see Yusei go over the railing.

Still feeling like he was on autopilot, Kiryu dove to the other side of the roof and extended his cord, praying to a bunch of fucking gods Kiryu didn't believe in that the manacle would make it in time. Kiryu needed precise aim here, and a firm grip…

The device closed tight around Yusei's wrist.

Of course, one clear disadvantage to doing all this almost automatically is that Kiryu, never much for forward-thinking on the best of days, had neglected to realize just how fucking heavy Yusei was. It was all Kiryu could do to hold onto the steel cord with his increasingly sweaty hands, much less to pull up on it…

And that was without considering the fact that the old, rusted railing Kiryu was bracing himself against was starting to give way.

"Kiryu, stop!" cried Yusei desperately. "Let go of me! If you don't…you'll get dragged down too!"

"Bullshit, Yusei!" Kiryu shouted back, barely even comprehending what he was hearing. "I would never just…urgh…abandon you! You're…urgh…my friend!"

Kiryu continued to pull with all his might, grunting and growling as he watched the last part of the railing begin to splinter. In the back of his mind, Kiryu knew that all this struggling wasn't really helping either of them.

But Yusei was Kiryu's first friend. One of Kiryu's only friends. The one who taught Kiryu what it meant to be a part of something…to care for someone other than Kiryu.

Kiryu didn't want to go back to the way he was before Yusei, Jack, and Crow had forced themselves into his lives – when it'd just been Kiryu, the Music, and his deck, yearning with all his heart for Satisfaction but never once actually getting to experience it. So if Yusei was fated to die this day…Kiryu saw no reason not to join him…

Kiryu was interrupted in the course of this thought by Crow, who had grasped Kiryu around the waist and was wrenching him upward, until both of his friends were on solid ground once more. As the two lay there panting on the ground Yusei's eyes, shimmering with gratitude, stared back into Kiryu's, and the silver-haired duelist silently marveled at what he had just done – or rather, marveled at the fact that it didn't surprise Kiryu one bit.

"Thank you, Kiryu," Yusei said simply, and Kiryu knew instantly that he'd have done it again in a heartbeat.

Nevertheless…there was still the matter of the cocksucking bastard who'd dared to pull that stunt in the first place. Jack kicked the guy's face in when he tried to run away, which was a good start…

But it certainly wasn't satisfying.

He'd dared to touch one of Kiryu's friends…to try and take one of Kiryu's friends away from him. He needed to pay for that.

With Zone M routed of its last remaining Duel Gang, it hadn't been hard to corner the motherfucker later that night – ironically, on top of an entirely different rooftop. Kiryu scouted the guy smoking weed from a distance and silently crept up to him through the darkness, his cloak floating behind him as he placed his target in a stranglehold.

"You know what I hate?" Kiryu murmured, holding the struggling man over the edge of the roof. "Pieces of shit who can't play fair. Well, there's only one thing fuckers like you understand."

The (former) gang leader gasped for breath as Kiryu punched him repeatedly in the gut, still keeping a one-handed grip on his neck that prevented him from falling ten stories.

"You stay the fuck away from my friends, you got that?" Kiryu whispered in the man's ear. "You stay away, or Kiryu Kyosuke is going to teach you what it really means to be satisfied."

Kiryu slackened his grip a bit after that, allowing the bastard to take a few breaths. This allowed him to slowly reply, "F…Fine. Have your fun, kid. But this ain't gonna last. Even if I go down there's a thousand guys just like me waiting to take revenge…and that's not even if Security comes and hauls your asses to jail. Which they will."

Kiryu's temper had begun to rise as the other man denigrated Team Satisfaction's great victory, and it went absolutely white-hot the moment he heard the word "Security."

"Nobody's taking this away from us!" Kiryu screamed at the man. "Not your Gang, not any of the others, and definitely not fucking Security! You got that?! You got that?!"

[-]

And for quite a while, nobody did try to take away their victory. Or at least…nobody succeeded.

But that didn't make victory any more enjoyable.

Kiryu had always thought that the Satisfaction he'd been building up to all his life would come to a climax once they controlled all of Satellite. But if that was the case, Satisfaction was proving…not to be very satisfying.

Kiryu simply couldn't see where things had gone wrong; why Kiryu felt so damn empty, while his friends cheered and laughed and bumped fists at their success.

It'd been a worthy goal, hadn't it? And they'd certainly managed it, and then some…right? Dammit, they'd dominated everyone in their path! Took control of the whole fucking island! Shouldn't that be enough?!

Kiryu sighed as he listened to the Music, as Kiryu always did whenever he couldn't make up his mind on how to feel. While Kiryu still kept his old record player in working condition, he largely worked off a couple different boomboxes now, and Kiryu frowned with irritation as he started one up only to hear the last few notes sound from the speakers.

Nobody ever wants to hear the end of a song, Kiryu reflected with a frown. Enjoyment of the Music – of any music – came only in the moment, and when it was over there was never Satisfaction. Only a fervent desire to replay the song, and try to recapture the bliss that rapidly slid away in any moment of silence.

Replay…

"Guess what, guys?" Kiryu said to the rest of his team, who he found celebrating with some cards and some drinks. "Things aren't over for us! They never have to be over."

"Err…what do you mean, dude?" asked Crow, an eyebrow raised. "We've won, haven't we? Nowhere to go from here."

"We've won now, yeah…but they'll be back! They'll always be back!" Kiryu explained, not entirely understanding why the others weren't sharing in his excitement. "There'll always be guys to crush in Satellite…the old gangs looking for revenge, or new ones that think they can fuck with us. We need to keep showing everyone out there that we're the hardest bastards on the island!"

Jack said nothing to this, merely walking to Kiryu's room and turning the Music – flowing freely through the open doorway – down to a much lower volume. Yusei, meanwhile, hesitantly responded, "I can sort of see what you're talking about, Kiryu. There won't have been much point in liberating Satellite if we just sit back and let it backslide. But what do you suggest…policing the streets ourselves 24/7? Even we can't be everywhere at once."

Kiryu just smirked and replied, "We can try."

And try they did. Despite a few other muted protests, Team Satisfaction tended to defer to Kiryu's judgment as a matter of course, and Kiryu pushed them to their limits in taking out every last straggler of the "old Satellite." Kiryu made it explicit to his once and future teammates: the only Duel Disks he wanted to see functional on the entire island were the four on their arms.

Restaurants, bars, barber shops…Kiryu led them on raids against every place that could conceivably hold a duelist or two. True, there wasn't always a gang member (former or current) who materialized out of their missions, but Kiryu's hunches tended to be right more often than they were wrong, and even so Kiryu didn't see the harm in roughing up a few small-fry a bit, if it meant getting Satisfaction.

"We're not done yet!" Kiryu would always shout, laughing jovially as one Duel Disk after another exploded on their erstwhile owners' arms. "They want to take Satellite away from Team Satisfaction! We'll show them who fucking owns this island!"

If Kiryu was paying more attention to his friends during that period, he might have seen the signs. Grand declarations of purpose and calling, which had once elicited cheers, were increasingly being met by sighs and rolling eyes. Crow and Jack, at least, were no longer speaking during their duels – dutifully taking out whoever Kiryu pointed them at, but doing so without a trace of enjoyment or even interest.

Hell, Jack had just straight-up disappeared for over a week as they swept back over Zones X and G, returning without an explanation a while later and refusing to speak to Kiryu about where he'd gone, or why.

But the point of no return hadn't truly arrived until they made their final assault on Zone F.

Zone F had been Team Insect's territory, once upon a time – a useless band of nobodies that seemed to come into control of the place almost by accident, and who Kiryu wouldn't have even bothered crushing the first time around had it not been for completion's sake. But word was going around that a few of their guys had escaped Team Satisfaction's assault, and if those rumors were true then it was simply time to finish the job.

It had seemed like a perfectly standard "mission." What meager scraps of Team Insect that remained went down almost insultingly easy, the cowards unsuccessfully attempting to flee from what they knew to be certain defeat. But Kiryu didn't let them. As Kiryu told his team, anybody else wielding a Duel Disk was an enemy.

And Kyosuke Kiryu extended no mercy to his enemies.

But then…then, Kiryu had heard Crow's cry of frustration. Kiryu was too far away to make out the words his friend was speaking, but the cause was obvious as a scrawny little runt with a Team Insect shirt came running into Kiryu's path.

Kiryu cracked his knuckles, grinned, and latched the fucker's Duel Disk to his.

Kiryu wasn't entirely sure what the piece of shit had done to Crow, but whatever it was he made sure to repay it tenfold. The kid barely even put up enough of a fight to make it worth it, so it probably wasn't that the redhead had been beaten; even an awful hand couldn't make Crow lose to someone this pathetic. Maybe the little bastard cheated?

The thought made Kiryu stomp what remained of the kid's Duel Disk into pieces, chuckling as the worthless little fuck gaped up at him. Kiryu would teach this pussy the consequences of trying to pull one on a member of Team Satisfaction.

Kiryu raised his foot back up again, still laughing through clenched teeth. "There's no room for weak fucks like you in the dueling world," Kiryu muttered, before bringing his boot down onto the kid's head.

Or at least Kiryu would have, had Crow not come out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground first.

"Hurry and run, kid! Get outta here!" shouted Kiryu's teammate, the kid hastening to do exactly as he was told.

"What the…what the Hell are you doing, Crow?!" Kiryu yelled back, his fist sinking hard into Crow's gut. It'd been a reflexive move, and Kiryu regretted it as soon as the blow connected, but the damage was done – Crow stared back at him with a glare of utter disgust.

Which…only infuriated Kiryu more. What right did Crow have to look betrayed?! Kiryu wasn't the one who'd just turned traitor for the sake of some worthless asshole they didn't even fucking know! Kiryu had just been trying to help!

"You fucking little…!" and another raised fist were as far as Kiryu got toward expressing that idea, however, before Jack caught his arm and Yusei pulled a struggling Crow away. The latter broke free soon after, however, and before Kiryu knew it he was being screamed at about "the honor of the duel" and how they had no right to be taking that away from others and…

And then those three words, striking Kiryu like bullets.

"Count me out," said Crow, and he walked away without another word.

Kiryu couldn't believe what he was hearing; couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Aren't we a team?!" Kiryu protested to Crow's retreating back. "Crow…aren't we friends?"

But not only did these words fail to reach the first deserter…but they were followed up swiftly by a second. "Jack, wait!" Kiryu cried in vain as the stoic blond wordlessly turned away, and began to leave as well. But neither of the two ever looked back, and in increasing desperation Kiryu turned to the last person he had left to hold onto.

"Yusei, please…we're a team, right? We're friends…right?!" Kiryu pleaded with the one friend who remained at his side. If Yusei too gave up on him…Kiryu didn't even want to consider it. There wouldn't be a point in going on anymore, if that was the case.

Yusei didn't say anything aloud, but eventually he gave a short, silent nod.

Note for note, the exact same one he'd given when Kiryu first suggested Team Satisfaction, all those months ago.

[-]

In the immediate aftermath of the Zone F fiasco, Kiryu was torn between overwhelming relief and overwhelming misery.

The former and the latter were, of course, inextricably linked. Kiryu had three friends in his life – no more, no less. The perfect companions and the perfect teammates. And each and every one of them, a man Kiryu would be willing to put down his life for.

So to see two of them just…walk away like that…

It hurt. Holy shit, it hurt worse than anything Kiryu had ever experienced in his life.

Well…experienced so far.

That's where the relief, and at the same time the worst possible pain, came in. Jack and Crow were (Had been? No…Kiryu refused to use the past tense!) Kiryu's friends, and in-and-of-itself that term meant a tremendous amount. But Yusei Fudo was…more than that.

He'd been the first, and the greatest. When Kiryu needed to confide in someone, he went to Yusei. When Kiryu needed someone to cover his back in a fight, he went to Yusei. When Kiryu just wanted a buddy to hang with and listen to the Music with…he went to Yusei. Always Yusei.

Kiryu tried to convince himself – with limited success – that Yusei had had ample opportunity to betray him too, and yet had refused. But that didn't stop Kiryu from worrying.

After all…Kiryu still had no idea what had moved Crow and Jack to abandon them. What if it happened again? Kiryu had taken some precaution by tracking that stupid fucking kid back down again and kicking the crap out of him (it was all his fault, of course), but Kiryu had no way of knowing if that would be enough.

And the idea of living without Yusei in his life…of losing the first and now only friend in Kiryu's entire life…was such a horrific prospect that Kiryu was willing to do anything to avoid it. Kiryu didn't think he could survive on his own anymore.

Kiryu didn't want to be alone.

Consequently, as he and Yusei alone continued to clean out Satellite over the next few weeks, Kiryu found himself tossing around the question of just what had gone wrong more and more frequently. Kiryu's mind perpetually oscillated between resentment toward the traitors for daring to leave, and a fierce longing in his heart for their return…often crossing both in the same train of thought.

In his more generous moments, though, Kiryu did try to search for someone or something else to blame – something that would make their betrayal make sense. Sometimes Kiryu blamed the Team Insect pussy, but in the back of his mind Kiryu knew that didn't quite explain it; after all, the kid wasn't around any more, and yet Crow and Jack hadn't seen fit to return.

Other times, Kiryu cycled through a number of "alternative suspects" upon which he could focus his ire. Everyone from the other Gangs to those fat-cats on the other side of the bay to that slobbering moron who ran the bar on the next block were considered as potential reasons why Crow and Jack had so suddenly taken leave of their senses.

But it wasn't until Satellite was changed forever that Kiryu managed to deduce the real reason.

Kiryu watched them with disgust as they swarmed over the Satellite, like ants bursting from their hill. Security had always been in Satellite, of course, but they'd always been somewhat passive in their operations – only coming out in full force when something, like the Daedalus Bridge, actively threatened their imagined order.

But lately the fuckers had become increasingly proactive, moving under the banner of what they called "Operation Sweeping Justice." The goal of the exercise, according to the propaganda they blared to the factory workers and the bums in the gutters alike, was some crap about "making the streets safe again" by eliminating every Duel Gang on the island once and for all.

Obviously, this stuff was total bullshit, since that was exactly what Team Satisfaction had been fucking doing for fucking months!

But instead of thanking them for basically doing their job for them, the pigs with Security instead move to reign in on Team Satisfaction's turf. With absolutely no regard to the partition of the Zones or how things worked in the Satellite, the bastards pretty much just busted down whatever the Hell they felt like, and took down every duelist in their path.

In short…they were using cards, Duel Disks, and D-Wheels to bully and oppress everyone weaker than them, just so they could expand their turf and enforce their fucking will upon others.

Which, Kiryu realized with a laugh, made them no different from a Duel Gang themselves. Just bigger.

In his darker moments, Kiryu had come close to agonizing that the departure of Jack and Crow might have been his fault, somehow. Kiryu couldn't possibly see why – he'd done nothing but give and sacrifice for the team's sake since they first became friends, and Kiryu thought they of all people would at least understand that.

But in watching Security rampage across the island (their island), Kiryu realized that the problem was in fact his fault…if only indirectly. Kiryu had been making the mistake of sending his teammates against the smallest of the small-fry, in those weeks after Zone M fell. Quite simply, Crow and Jack had just gotten bored…and who could blame them?

As leader, it was Kiryu's job to select the right targets of the greatest dueling team in the history of the game, and Kiryu was man enough to admit it: he'd fucked that job up.

But it wasn't too late to fix things. Not by a long shot.

[-]

"What are you saying, Kiryu?!" Yusei shouted, his eyes wide in shock. "You want us to go up against Security?"

"Yes…I've finally found the final enemy of Team Satisfaction," said Kiryu, his fingers steepled as the sun set behind him. Kiryu thought it achieved the proper dramatic effect.

"Final enemy? What do you mean?" Yusei asked.

"Only by defeating them will our conquest of Satellite truly be complete," Kiryu explained, feeling so relieved that he felt like shouting even as his voice stayed low and even. After those last, horrible days spent alone, nobody outside of Kiryu's own mind sharing in the simple truths he'd come to realize, it felt so good to finally make someone understand. The three were the only people in Kiryu's entire life who had ever understood, after all.

"Yusei…get Jack and Crow for me," Kiryu went on, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "We'll crush them all. The four of us, together!"

Kiryu had been expecting Yusei to whoop and holler at this command, or at least to nod and carry it out as he always did – with perfect efficiency and a lot of heart. At worst, Kiryu had been expecting his closest friend to ask for further clarification as to where he might find their errant comrades.

What Kiryu hadn't expected was for Yusei to slam his hands upon the table separating them, his tone alarmed and exasperated.

"Don't you understand, Kiryu?!" Yusei exclaimed; Kiryu noted the emphasis, and didn't much care for it. "You must know this is suicide!"

Kiryu tried not to let his shock at these words show. Instead Kiryu remained outwardly calm as he attempted to goad Yusei back into the correct way of thinking.

"Are you really pussying out, Yusei?" Kiryu asked. Appealing to Yusei's pride as a duelist seemed the simplest course of action.

But Yusei, again, surprised Kiryu…and not in a good way. He shouted his leader's name in frustration, and picked him up by his shirt, before letting go a few seconds later and sighing deeply.

Then he began to speak…and Kiryu's world began to rip in two.

"Kiryu…I can't be with you anymore," Yusei murmured, his gaze turned downward. "You'll have to do this one on your own. You go down this path, and…and I'm leaving the team. I'm leaving you."

Then, like the others, he turned away without a second glance. And like the others, though Kiryu called out his name with increasing volume…he never once turned back.

[-]

If Jack and Crow leaving him had made Kiryu depressed, he'd expected that losing Yusei would've made him feel downright suicidal. At first it puzzled Kiryu that it very much didn't.

Eventually, however, Kiryu realized where he'd just gone wrong: actions spoke louder than words, and Yusei hadn't been able to take Kiryu's threats upon Security seriously as a result.

Crow, Jack, and (especially) Yusei couldn't possibly have left Kiryu forever. It just wasn't in them to abandon him – to betray him – like that. They'd return in time. But now it was clear that it would take more than just a few words and promises to make that happen.

Which made sense. Speech had never satisfied Kiryu the way that conflict, whether by fists or by cards, ever had. Without actions to back them up, Kiryu's vow to take down Security in Team Satisfaction's glorious Last Duel meant nothing; empty lyrics without a melody.

So Kiryu got to work.

Fortunately, Kiryu already had the best damn weapon in Satellite at his fingertips: a full and thorough understanding of what made Duel Disks tick. Having worked out a mechanism to detonate explosives in Duel Disks using his cords, it was child's play to adapt the trigger from a duel loss to a radio signal emitted by Kiryu's own "master" disk.

The next step, then, was casing the place. Kiryu resisted his initial urge to just run in the front door and start blowing shit up, damn the consequences – whatever he stated outwardly, Kiryu had learned a thing or two from the cautious-by-nature Yusei, and so he knew that in the long run it was better to plan this crap out for one massive strike, rather than waste time and energy on impulse.

So Kiryu waited weeks, observing every movement he could in and out of Security's main headquarters and writing up his best approximation of a duty roster from his findings. It wasn't perfect, but eventually Kiryu felt he had a pretty good idea how best to smuggle in his rigged Duel Disks without being noticed.

The details weren't all that important, not that Kiryu remembered them all that well…but the point was that there soon came a night when Kiryu was standing back, a safe distance from the building, and shaking with raucous laughter as several grunts wheeled a cart of confiscated Duel Disks directly into the heart of their headquarters.

Kiryu had thought of bringing the Music along to commemorate the occasion…but ultimately he decided against it. Instead, Kiryu just hummed it.

"Trap Card, activate!" Kiryu said, sliding in the card that served as the detonation signal.

There was a split-second after this when nothing happened. Then fire and ash began to fill the sky.

Kiryu had always liked loud noises – he certainly tended to play the Music, any music, at volumes rather greater than most – and the enormous BOOM! that followed was nothing short of glorious. Already Kiryu could see people fleeing from the blast below, scattering away like ants from a magnifying glass, with their cries of panic punctuated by the alarms of numerous emergency vehicles.

God, it was fucking epic!

"Let the dueling begin, Security!" Kiryu cried out, laughing gleefully at his triumph. "Time for Satisfaction!"

And Kiryu damn well meant it. Whatever his "friends" had said, Kiryu had proven it possible: that Security could be crushed, even at their very heart. It was proof not even Jack or Crow could possibly deny. And it would mean their return for certain.

Now it was just a matter of waiting…and of not getting caught.

[-]

Kiryu got caught.

Well…sort of. Kiryu knew the streets of Satellite better than just about anyone – certainly better than any pampered dog working for Security – and so it hadn't been difficult to give them the slip for the first few weeks after his devastating first strike.

But even fugitives needed to eat, and Kiryu had to admit that he'd underestimated Security's resourcefulness. With an island-wide manhunt out for the leader of Team Satisfaction, they'd seen fit to plant Officers or their damn snitches in most of the bars, restaurants, and grocery stores in Satellite. Sometimes Kiryu got by on pure luck, his face unrecognized under his hood as he pocketed some beer or some ramen…but it was only a matter of time before that luck ran out.

Soon enough Kiryu was running for his life, calls going off all around him from traitors willing to sell out their savior in exchange for a paltry reward. Kiryu made it out of the store in which he'd been spotted, at least, but Security came en-force, their D-Wheels circling the entire city block and rapidly closing in.

Kiryu didn't often much recall weather. It very rarely seemed like a particularly notable detail, and Kiryu tended to have more important things to commit to memory, anyway.

But Kiryu remembered that night.

Rain pounded the pavement in a torrent, coming down like ice and weighing down Kiryu's clothes against his skin. In the end Kiryu discarded his waterlogged cloak outright, throwing it at a pursuing Security vehicle and diving into a nearby alleyway. It would've reminded Kiryu of the day he met his friends, if not for that rain; as it was, it meant Kiryu was running almost completely blind, no longer possessed of the time to think about where he was going or what he would do next.

That was how Kiryu had ended up in an abandoned apartment complex, surrounded on all sides as Security dogs shouted at him to pussy out and surrender to them. Kiryu offered them no response – that was all they deserved.

Slumping against the wall, Kiryu withdrew his deck and slowly shuffled through the cards, his expression cold. Absent his team, Kiryu's monsters, Spells, and Traps were the only companions he had in attaining Satisfaction, and if it had to be just them versus Security's fullest might…then so be it.

The greater the odds that Kiryu could beat, the sooner Team Satisfaction would again be as one. The sooner the Music would sound its rightful harmony.

The sooner…the sooner…

The door slammed open.

A window shattered.

And Kiryu's world was once again perfect.

"I knew it!" Kiryu cried out ecstatically as his teammates gathered around him, their Duel Disks primed and ready. It was all happening so fast that Kiryu's emotions could barely keep up. "I knew you guys wouldn't abandon me. We're Team Satisfaction!"

Kiryu's friends did not join in his laughter, although Kiryu didn't notice. "Kiryu, what the Hell are you doing?" demanded Jack.

"We're here to…" began Crow, but Kiryu cut him off. Kiryu didn't need to hear this now. All that mattered was that they were finally together again. Back together with Kiryu.

"The gang's all here!" Kiryu said jovially, pulling his team into a group hug. Then Kiryu proceeded to the window and addressed the fuckers below, drinking in the sight of their spotlights and the sound of their sirens as if they were announcing their imminent victory. Even the heavy rains felt satisfying now.

"This is it: the Last Duel of Team Satisfaction!" Kiryu announced to the worthless bastards, his laughter continuing to spill out with greater and greater enthusiasm. "Come on, if you pussies think you can take us! Come on and duel!"

But Kiryu's laughter quickly began to fade as he heard sounds coming from the other side of the room. Turning around, Kiryu saw the unthinkable: the Duel Disks of Jack, Crow, and Yusei – activated and set for battle not two minutes ago – being placed by their owners onto a table of rotten wood.

Kiryu's mouth opened and closed a few times in response to this; Kiryu had no words to articulate what he was feeling right now. Finally Kiryu shook his head hard and yelled, "Hey! What the fuck are you doing?!"

When none of them replied, Kiryu started forward, growing more furious by the second. "Aren't we going to fight together?!" Kiryu went on. "What about our Last Duel, dammit?!"

"Open your eyes, Kiryu," Jack responded, his usually passionate voice staid and emotionless.

"You don't stand a chance in Hell if you go up against Security head-on," Crow added, adopting the same tone.

There was no anger in either of their voices – not anymore. Just the weary impatience of parents scolding an overindulgent child.

"You…you guys…" Kiryu murmured weakly, unsure of what else to say. Kiryu's mind was quite literally shutting down as their words pounded against him one after the other, like waves on sand.

"Kiryu, you need to get out of here," said Yusei. It wasn't uttered like a request.

Which didn't prevent Kiryu from clinging to it as just that…and rejecting it accordingly. "Now that sure as Hell wouldn't satisfy me!" Kiryu exclaimed, making one last appeal. It didn't make sense…they were supposed to understand once Kiryu set them against the last opponents worthy of the greatest duelists on Earth. But if they needed just a bit more of a push…

"We can say we defeated Security! We can say we dominated all of Satellite! No one will ever match us!" Kiryu implored them, getting into each of their faces in turn with clenched fists and unblinking eyes. "Let's play our Last Duel, guys! Let's go!"

Another few beats of silence.

Then Jack declared, with a note of finality, "We no longer share the same goals."

"Wh…What did you say…?" asked Kiryu in a low voice. It was bad enough that they didn't want to join Kiryu in this particular mission to attain Satisfaction…but if they no longer understood the importance of attaining it at all?!

"Besides that, we're still your friends," Yusei stated, changing the subject. "We want to save you from Security. Kiryu, please…"

But Kiryu wasn't listening. Kiryu wasn't even remotely listening.

In fact, for the first time since Kiryu had met them, Kiryu was staring at the members of Team Satisfaction – no, not Kiryu's team, but three traitorous strangers, as horrible and as deceitful as any other people on Earth – and hearing nothing. No music. No harmony.

Silence.

"How…how could it end up like this…?" Kiryu whispered to himself, as he backed into the opposite wall. "I…I…with all of you…"

But Kiryu didn't complete that thought…not that Kiryu had anything to complete it with, anyway. Because at that moment explosions rocked the base of the building, and Kiryu stumbled to the ground as smoke flooded through the nearest windows.

"Security is beginning their raid!" shouted Yusei, and without any further discussion the four of them all turned to flee.

If Kiryu had been capable of any conscious thought at that time, he might well have decided not to run with them. But Kiryu had been fleeing from the scourge of Security for years, and with his world falling to pieces around him, Kiryu was momentarily acting upon pure instinct.

But as soon as the team – the former team, rather – got separated in the midst of the torrential rains, and Kiryu found himself running into an alley without any obvious path for escape, Kiryu began to again contemplate just that.

"They expect me to run from Satellite? But to where?" Kiryu demanded of nothing in particular as he scanned his surroundings for a way out of this death-trap. Kiryu found none.

And really…wasn't that just a fucking brilliant metaphor? Kiryu had started Team Satisfaction in the first place with the understanding that they'd never, ever leave Satellite. It had never even been on their radar, and for good reason.

Kiryu could count the number of successful escapes he'd hear about on one hand. And the ones where the escapees had lived to see the next year were even lower.

So if Kiryu was expected to just give up on any hopes of satisfying himself on this fucking island…then what the Hell was even the point of going on?!

As if in answer to Kiryu's mental cry of anguish, a Security Officer pulled up with his D-Wheel into the alley, flashing his lights against Kiryu's face with a smug grin. Kiryu's face, in turn, twisted to reflect the expression with tenfold intensity.

"I guess…I'll just have to fight you myself, then!" Kiryu declared to the cocky son-of-a-bitch, readying his Duel Disk. Kiryu, admittedly, didn't have a plan for beyond this moment…but for the moment what remained of his higher mind was saying to Hell with plans.

Kiryu would have his Satisfaction. No matter how many friends abandoned Kiryu. No matter how many traitors backstabbed Kiryu. No matter how much the whole damn world wanted to fuck with the life of Kiryu.

Even if it was just for this one moment…Kiryu would be fucking satisfied.

[-]

It had all happened so fast.

The Officer was a pussy-ass punk. He'd played exactly one decent card in their duel, and that was Montage Dragon…and so, once Kiryu destroyed it with a simple Reactive Armor, the dumbass had been left with no hand and no way to come back.

So he'd chosen to just up and ram Kiryu with his D-Wheel instead.

Kiryu had been momentarily shocked by the Security dog's sudden burst of aggressiveness, but he wasted no time questioning it; the important thing was fighting back. First Kiryu leaped out of the way, grabbing onto an overhanging ledge and swinging himself onto the Officer's D-Wheel.

Kiryu placed him in a headlock, intending to subdue him quickly…but once more Kiryu was surprised by the man's unending idiocy, as without warning he began driving forward full-throttle, his throat still held tight in Kiryu's arms.

The result was unavoidable. The two of them crashed straight into a wall of aged brick, and while the bike itself span off a good distance away, both men tumbled to the ground in a heap. The Security Officer went first, hitting his head and immediately knocking himself out.

Kiryu was out-of-breath, and in pain from his ribs…but otherwise he recovered far more quickly. And as Kiryu looked upon the unconscious Security Officer, a minor amount of blood spilt from what looked like a broken nose but otherwise with no signs of serious injury, Kiryu began to grow angrier and angrier.

Kiryu thought he might have picked up something…something to teach this cheating, conniving, fascist pig some manners. Nothing more than that. Kiryu might have said something too, but he also might have imagined that. It wasn't really important.

Because at that moment, apparently jumping to the worst possible conclusion, the least likely figure Kiryu could ever have imagined tackled him to the ground and pinned him with his own body.

"Stop!" cried out Yusei Fudo as he wrestled with Kiryu, ultimately coming out victorious and managing to hold Kiryu down.

"Let go, Yusei!" screamed Kiryu in turn, struggling with all his might to get back up. But Kiryu wasn't able to concentrate fully on doing so; the sheer, blinding shock of what was going on here was making it hard to think of anything else.

"We have to crush Security! Yusei, please!" Kiryu continued to shout, still unable to comprehend how such incredible men – and there came Crow and Jack coming to "join" them now – could fail to understand something so simple. How they could decide that denying their own Satisfaction wasn't enough…but that they had to quite literally trap Kiryu away from his!

Kiryu wanted to scream. Kiryu though he might've. But if Kiryu did…it did Kiryu no good.

Kiryu was hyperventilating as Crow and Jack grabbed him by each arm and dragged him into the nearest empty building – enough so that Kiryu was scarcely able to pay attention to whatever the fuck they were saying. All Kiryu could see was that Yusei was giving them some orders…and then walking away, out onto the main street.

Where the rest of the Security forces were waiting.

The three of them waited there for about a minute in total silence…or at least, that's what Kiryu perceived it to be. Jack and Crow might've been talking, but Kiryu didn't bother listening. Kiryu was too busy stewing in just how many things had gone wrong in the last half-hour…and what the Hell could be going on with Yusei now.

Was he setting up some kind of distraction? Or was he going all-out in this sudden pussification, and just blatantly surrendering like a dickless coward? Or…or could he be…?

No!

Yusei might've surprised Kiryu a million different ways lately, none of them positively…but that was the one line Kiryu knew he would never cross. No one on their team – or at least, what was left of it – would even consider it.

Kiryu's thought processes were once again interrupted, however, as dozens of Security Officers busted through the surrounding doors and flooded in, separating Jack and Crow from Kiryu as they seized them all. The former struggled, clearly irate, but Kiryu did not. Nothing could possibly get worse from here, so what was the point?

Kiryu saw several things as he was being led to the armored truck that would take him away from this place…almost certainly for good. Kiryu saw the ass of an Officer who'd inadvertently hurt himself, being wheeled away on a stretcher. Kiryu saw Jack and Crow being pulled off to the side, leaving a path open for Kiryu to be dragged to his fate.

Kiryu saw Yusei, with the…with the Security Chief…

Kiryu's heart stopped. The Chief was chuckling and clapping Yusei on the shoulder. Giving him the "job well done, son" smile.

Yusei…Yusei had…

Yusei had betrayed Kiryu.

"Yusei!" Kiryu screeched at the top of his lungs, now struggling with all his might against Kiryu's captors. Now Kiryu actually had something to do…namely place his hands around Yusei's neck and squeeze really fucking hard!

"You…you betrayed me?! You sold me out?!" Kiryu continued to bellow as the Security Officers seized him again, forcing him into the vehicle. Kiryu was thrown hard against the floor of the truck, but that didn't stop Kiryu. Nothing was capable of stopping Kiryu now. A blazing, white-hot fury was dominating every last fiber of Kiryu's mind, and nothing mattered but getting to Yusei and ripping out his internal organs one-by-one.

But though Kiryu crawled and groped, clawed and leaped, Kiryu could not get past the steel doors which slammed shut upon him.

Yusei's face, astonished at having been found out in his backstabbing, was the last thing Kiryu saw.

Then it was all darkness.

[-]

Kiryu received the Mark first.

To say the laser hurt would be quite the understatement; Kiryu's skin burned and stung for weeks afterward, every twitch of his face or turn of his head shooting a sharp pang across Kiryu's whole body. But more to the point was what the tattoo represented.

It wasn't at all that Criminal Marks were unusual sights for Kiryu. Kiryu saw them on tons of his opponents, not to mention however many random people in the streets. And of course…Crow had had one. The signature "M" on his forehead, commemorating the one instance where he'd actually served time for larceny.

But for Kiryu…somehow, it was different. Not only did the Security bastards treat Kiryu like shit while he wore it, but inexplicably, so did nearly every one of Kiryu's fellow inmates. Even those with ten times the markings Kiryu had were acting like he was a piss stain on their filthy-ass prison uniforms.

The beatings came daily, if not hourly. Guards broke Kiryu's jaw, smashed his fingers with a hammer, and kneed him in the groin so often that Kiryu couldn't even recall a time when he wasn't in excruciating pain. And again, when Security Officers weren't available to kick the ever-loving crap out of Kiryu…the other prisoners were always willing to pick up the slack.

But what puzzled Kiryu most was what they said when they did it.

"Cop-killer!" they'd shout, before socking their fists into Kiryu's gut.

"You don't fucking do that, you piece of shit!" others would yell, smashing Kiryu's head hard against the wall for good measure.

Similar exclamations followed Kiryu around constantly, and the worst part was that Kiryu had no fucking clue what they were talking about. Were they seriously trying to blame Kiryu for what'd happened to that injured Officer on the day he was arrested?

Because (A) it wasn't Kiryu's fault if the guy's own idiocy had gotten him hurt, and (B) he wasn't fucking dead, anyway!

But somehow, that didn't seem to matter. Gradually, Kiryu got the message. All the bullshit about "cop-killing" and whatnot was just a smokescreen to hide their true intentions: namely, that if you fucked with Security, you got your ass kicked for the rest of your fucking life.

Kiryu might've been able to get through all that abuse, though, if not for one thing: not only was Security intent on taking away his freedom and his dignity…but they were insisting on stealing away any hope Kiryu had for Satisfaction, as well.

The Music? Gone, replaced with beatings. Kiryu's deck? Gone, replaced with more beatings. The simple ability to enjoy going up against the opponents that now surrounded Kiryu nearly 24 hours out of the day? Gone…because Kiryu would always be beaten while handcuffed, or otherwise unable to defend himself.

The one thing Kiryu still had left in his life, in short, yielded nothing for him. No enjoyment, no improvement…no Satisfaction.

And that hurt worse than a hundred broken ribs.

[-]

"Tell me again about the figure in your dreams, Kyosuke-san," said the prison psychiatrist, his voice calm and even.

"Why the Hell should I repeat myself to you? I already said it's not fucking important," Kiryu shot back. "Can't we just send me back to my cell for my next round of ass-kickings, Doctor…err…?"

"Adler. Doctor Frank Adler…though you can just call me 'Professor Frank,' Kyosuke-san," replied the man, his arms crossed behind him as he leaned in closer to observe the utterly drained and exhausted Kiryu. "And I kindly ask that you leave those determinations to me. I need as much data as I can get, and I believe we're nearing a real breakthrough."

Kiryu let out a long sigh.

"Fine, whatever," Kiryu murmured, his face buried in his hands. "The thing was…well, it was big. Kinda like a human, but not really. Didn't have a face or even a fucking neck, for one thing. But it had arms and legs, I know that. Because it stretched out its hand and brought it down…down, down, down…until it crushed Yusei Fudo into a bloody fucking pulp!"

"I see," mused Professor Frank, making notes on a clipboard. "And does it make you feel good to watch this…giant…murder your friend?"

"He's not my friend! He's a two-faced fucking snitch!" bellowed Kiryu, bolting out of his chair and getting into Frank's face. Or at least Kiryu would have done so, were he not handcuffed to the chair in question.

"Of course, Kyosuke-san. My mistake," said Professor Frank, that same small, unwavering smile plastered over his face. "But regardless – do you believe it is this same impulse toward revenge that drove you to kill Officer Yokota?"

Kiryu's eyes went wide, but they did not meet Frank's. Instead Kiryu muttered some things under his breath before snapping, "The fuck are you talking about? That piece of shit isn't dead."

Professor Frank ceased writing for a moment. "Could you repeat that last part, Kyosuke-san?" he asked after a few moments' pause.

Kiryu grunted in frustration, but in shorter tones again stated, "He's…not…dead. Unless you're seriously telling me he's enough of a pussy that a broken nose made him kick the bucket. In which case, his fault, not mine."

Another pause, then, "Could you tell me exactly what you remember happening the night you were arrested?"

Kiryu answered these words with a large amount of swearing, but eventually the obscenities subsided and Kiryu begrudgingly laid out everything he could recall. Frank listened intently without responding, merely scratching away at his notes until Kiryu was done speaking.

Their eyes met again. Frank was still smiling – that never seemed to change, to the point where it was downright fucking creepy – but there was a subtle change in his expression that Kiryu hadn't noticed before.

"Let me just get this straight, Kyosuke-san," Professor Frank said, leaning forward slightly. "You recall only harming Officer Yokota accidentally? And then, only inflicting minor injuries?"

"Goddammit, how many fucking times do I have to repeat myself for you? Are you fucking deaf?!" cried out Kiryu.

"You don't at all remember holding a large object over him while he was helpless? Bludgeoning his body, violently and relentlessly?" Frank pressed on, the corners of his mouth twitching.

Kiryu's immediate reaction to these questions was to shoot off yet more invectives about Frank's parentage and manner of defecation, and indeed Kiryu already had the first breath of such an insult out of his mouth…but Kiryu found that his lips weren't quite working right. Because in his mind's eye, Kiryu was starting to see a whole lot of red.

Red on the ground…red on Kiryu's hands…red on a large piece of wood Kiryu was bringing up over the Security dog's head, and then bringing back down again…

Kiryu immediately shook his head vigorously to clear away the image. "I know what you're doing, you motherfucking cunt!" Kiryu shouted. "Trying to trick me…put things in my head that didn't really happen! All I should expect from someone working for those fucking pigs!"

"Who says that I work for Security? Sure, I help out time-to-time with their psychiatric evaluations, but my total portfolio is far…grander," replied Frank, who seemed more amused than anything at Kiryu's obscene insults. "But let's not change the subject, shall we? I can't help you unless you're willing to accept what you've done, Kyosuke-san."

"I…didn't…kill…anyone!" Kiryu screamed at the top of his lungs. Kiryu was doing his utmost to get out of his restraints, now; he'd never so desperately wanted to get away from someone before.

Because while Professor Frank continued to sit there, gazing upon his charge with detached bemusement, Kiryu's mind was racing. No matter how many times Kiryu repeated to himself that he should just ignore these obvious lies, Kiryu could not help the visions that came unbidden every so often, lingering across his mind's eye like bloodstains. Sometimes literally.

There was the man who had once tried to steal the Music from Kiryu, a knife jutting out of his heart…but this time Kiryu saw his own hands gripped around the handle.

A similar sight then greeted Kiryu, of the long-gone leader of the Magician's Four…but instead of the douchebag stabbing himself, what Kiryu knew to be true, once more the image could not be banished of Kiryu doing the deed himself.

Another flash, and Kiryu's grip on the throat of the Zone M gang leader, the one who had nearly succeeded at murdering Yusei, was released. The man fell ten stories to a highly poetic death, which Kiryu did remember…but Kiryu hadn't done it himself. Kiryu hadn't been sorry about it, but he fell on his fucking own, dammit!

The scene changed yet again, and now it was some kid under Kiryu's heel – a kid Kiryu couldn't even place a name to. After a bit of thought, Kiryu pinged him as the final member of Team Insect; the one who had faced Crow on the day everything had started going to shit. And yeah, Kiryu had kicked the crap out of him after-the-fact…but he deserved it for splitting Kiryu's fucking team!

And Kiryu hadn't killed him!

These images and more, false though they were, continued to flash across Kiryu's mind, and Kiryu was screaming audibly as he fought to dispel them. One after another, blood and knives and pain, so much fucking pain…

"I didn't kill anyone!" Kiryu repeated, thrashing about in his chair. "I didn't kill anyone I didn't kill anyone I didn't kill anyone I didn't kill anyone I didn't fucking kill anyone!"

Kiryu was hyperventilating now as his voice faded out from all the shouting, his mind no longer forming coherent thoughts but a fervent, desperate desire to be somewhere else. Kiryu didn't care where. Kiryu just needed these damn lies to stop.

Because they were really starting to fucking hurt…

"I see. Thank you for your time, Kyosuke-san," Professor Frank said with a small bow, before heading to a door and knocking. "Armstrong-sama, may I speak with you for a moment?"

"What can the glorious Takasu Armstrong do for you, doc?" asked the prison's warden as he sauntered into the room, munching loudly and messily on a sandwich as he looked upon Kiryu with contempt.

"While I'll need some further sessions to be certain, the results of my preliminary evaluation indicate that Kyosuke-san is not of sound mind, and should not be kept in a general prison population," Frank told the much larger man, calmly brushing off a bit of tomato which splattered out of Takasu's mouth and onto his shirt.

"Whadaya…mean…by that…?" demanded the warden between mouthfuls.

"I mean to say that the poor boy suffers from powerful delusions," Frank answered, as calmly as ever. If it occurred to him that perhaps this was a conversation best held away from the now-motionless patient, then it did not seem to concern him. "He disassociates himself from those acts which he cannot accept responsibility for; invents wholly different versions of the events which leave him blameless. But this is no mere coping mechanism. He genuinely believes that his 'version' is the absolute truth, and cannot be convinced otherwise."

"So…?" Takasu pressed on, clearly understanding very little of what he was hearing.

"So I do not believe he can be properly held responsible for actions such as bombing Security headquarters or murdering Officer Yokota," explained Frank. "In his mind he knows he did these things, but he rationalizes them as having hurt no one. Not long-term, at least. This is not the mindframe of somebody who can be served by the ordinary criminal justice system."

"Then…what is it you actually want, fancy-pants?" Takasu asked after finally swallowing his monster of a bite. "Just spit it out already."

"Very well, Armstrong-sama," responded Professor Frank, his tones growing slightly sharper though his face remained quite the same. "I humbly request that you allow me to transfer young Kyosuke-san to my offsite treatment facility. It is, I assure you, perfectly secure. And it will allow me to provide him with the…attention…he needs in order to heal."

"Sorry doc, no-can-do," Takasu declared, grabbing his belt with both hands and jutting out his chest in a manner that might've been intended as intimidating. "This little piece of meat is on death-row, and his execution's in less than a month. We ain't gonna go out on a limb for a guy we're gonna fry in a few weeks."

A smug grin fell over his face as he added, "Plus, we've got special orders in this one's case. Straight from the Director himself."

"Goodwin-sama authorized this personally?" inquired Frank, one eyebrow moving slightly upward.

Takasu just chortled and replied, "That's right, bitch."

"I…see," Professor Frank murmured, hints of irritation beginning to poke through his mask of impassivity. "I'll have to have a word with him when we next meet. But for the moment, I accede to your…authority."

"Glad we got that straightened out. Later, doc," Takasu said to him with a snicker.

"Always a pleasure, Armstrong-sama," Frank returned, before striding out of the room without so much as a look back.

"Alright, now that that little pussy-ass pony show is done with…" growled the warden as the door slammed shut, leaving the two completely alone, "…it's way past time I show you how I treat people who fuck with Security…"

It was a good thing Kiryu's voice was so hoarse as to be barely noticeable, thanks to his oh-so-calming "therapy" session.

Because otherwise Kiryu's screams would've woken up every single inmate in the nearest cellblock.

[-]

Kiryu stopped eating the day after his evaluation.

What was the point, when now even Kiryu's very mind was betraying him? It was all over. The Music had ceased. The duel had ended.

Kiryu was at the end of his rope, and nothing would ever satisfy him again.

Knowing he was right didn't make Kiryu feel any better. In his last days of life Kiryu was going to be remembered as a murderer – worse, as some pathetic lunatic going around killing people, and then blocking out his memories of such.

It was absurd, Kiryu knew. But Kiryu still couldn't get those images out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. And if even he couldn't make the idea go away, then what hope did Kiryu have that the truth would be believed by others?

Kiryu had at best a few weeks left to himself, during which he had nothing to look forward to but further accusations and bloodier beatings. Kiryu had heard his last note, played his last card, and exchanged words with his last friend. Not that Kiryu even had any of those things anymore.

There was nothing left to live for. Nothing.

So Kiryu ignored the disgusting gruel that the guards shoved into his cell every so often. This seemed to suit them just fine, and after a few days of this they stopped bothering to offer it at all.

And so, with every passing day and every passing night, Kiryu's body grew weaker and weaker. The colors around him became duller and hazier as Kiryu's eyes settled into a constant state of half-lidded exhaustion. Kiryu wasn't even certain if he was sleeping anymore – he was perpetually on the verge of it, but if Kiryu ever did drift off it certainly didn't make him feel any better.

Kiryu's stomach growled terribly, but Kiryu ignored it. Kiryu was so hungry, all the time now, and it hurt…but if he gave in, Kiryu knew, it would only hurt more when the inevitable came.

At least this way…Kiryu could end it on his own terms.

[-]

The night that Kiryu died had been a quiet one.

No guard was standing citadel outside Kiryu's cell that evening; as far as Kiryu had been able to overhear, much of the Security personnel were off in the lounge drinking themselves into a stupor, in celebration of a recent bust that'd nailed the notorious German drug-dealer Kristoph Verbrechen.

If Kiryu were in a more capable state, he might've pointed out to anyone that would listen that the only way Verbrechen had been at all vulnerable to their incompetent asses was thanks to Team Satisfaction. Their conquest of Satellite had swept the old drug lords out of power, or at least weakened their hold on certain territories, and by rights Security should be thanking them for years to come.

But it wasn't like it mattered now. Kiryu wasn't going to go down in history as the man who made Satellite a place the regular guy could be satisfied with.

Kiryu was just going to be forgotten. And that was what hurt most of all.

"I…can't get no…Satisfaction…" Kiryu mumbled, his voice barely even sounding human from how parched his throat was.

Kiryu's eyelids slowly began to drift closer to each other. "Cause I try…and I try…and I try…and I try…"

They were fully closed now. "Hey, hey, hey…that's what I say…"

Kiryu kept singing, to the degree he still had the ability to form words…but his brain no longer registered it. It no longer registered hearing anything, actually.

The world was silence. Silence and darkness.

Which is why the Voice took Kiryu so thoroughly by surprise.

I am an Envoy of the Underworld.

The Voice was loud, and booming, and commanding…and yet Kiryu got the very distinct sense that he wouldn't have been able to hear it at all if he was still connected to the outside world. Only when the Music stopped could the Voice offer words.

One who is about to pass on, answer Me this. Do you desire to remain in this world, or do you not?

Kiryu didn't answer. Kiryu couldn't answer. Kiryu just listened.

To seize that desire is to claim it. To claim new life as a Dark Signer. New life, in which all that you wish shall be fulfilled.

For the last time ever, Kiryu felt a breath of air flow through his lungs…and though he had very little idea of what was going on, Kiryu used it to answer these words.

"There is only one thing that I wish," Kiryu said, his voice weak and growing weaker. "There is someone…I wish to take my vengeance upon. That, and…"

But Kiryu spoke no more.

The body of Kiryu Kyosuke slumped against the wall of his prison cell, little more than a withered, lifeless husk.

[-]

Kiryu awoke again exactly one hour later.

It was accurate to say that Kiryu had spent the intervening time in the palm of a giant, learning what he needed to know to do what needed to be done, but that seemed to so…undersell what Kiryu had just experienced.

For one thing, Kiryu hadn't exactly spoken to Ccapac Apu. Hell, there was no logical reason for Kiryu to even know that name. But Kiryu did.

That hour had been enough for Kiryu to understand everything. What Kiryu had thought to be skirmishes for the fate of a single island – for his own personal Satisfaction, and damn anything else – were in truth an age-old clash of Light and Darkness, playing out on a new battlefield. And Kiryu himself was the agent through which the next stage of that conflict would take form.

Kiryu had always known he was important. Never had Kiryu met anyone else who saw things in quite the same way; who comprehended, fully and completely, the essence of the Music and the world that was built around it.

The closest anyone had ever come was Yusei, which in retrospect made perfect sense. The two had been destined as mortal adversaries from birth…so why should it be surprising that they shared so many things in common?

And it explained too, almost sickeningly well, how his betrayal had come about. Yusei was a Signer – a word which Kiryu hadn't even known that morning, and yet which now filled him with a rage so intense that it threatened to burst forth and burn all of Neo Domino to the ground. He could never be trusted. He could never be regarded as anything but an enemy.

He had to die.

There was an obvious problem, of course: Yusei Fudo was outside, and Kiryu was not. But that was easily rectified.

The giant still did not "speak" in the traditional sense, but Kiryu heard its Voice in his ear all the same as he effortlessly bent the bars of his cell apart, guiding Kiryu step-by-step. The best analogy Kiryu could come up with, unsurprisingly, was a musical one. The instrumentals in the Music had always "spoken" to Kiryu just as much, if not moreso, than the lyrics themselves; Kiryu hadn't exactly understood the latter for years, after all.

Ccapac Apu was the same – a deity in symphony. Kiryu was certain that no one else would be able to take the subtle intimations from the God's deepest recesses to mean "go there" or "a guard is approaching to your right"…but then, they weren't one with the giant.

Kiryu and his almighty Jibakushin were united: mind, body, and what remained of his shattered soul. And like an intense solo from Keith Richards, it was glorious.

Empowered by the very energies of a God, Kiryu bounded through the prison at speeds that would've been inconceivable mere hours ago, avoiding the few guards still patrolling the halls and making short work of the ones that couldn't be sidestepped.

One had his neck twisted completely around before he even knew what was happening. Another was kicked so hard into a wall that his guts spilled out.

Kiryu felt quite amused at this turn of events as he broke off a piece of pipe and ran it through the head of the next guard. In trying to peg Kiryu as some kind of psychopathic murderer with their lies, Security had in effect made Kiryu into precisely what they feared.

Although…upon further reflection, 'murdered' probably wasn't the best term. Murder was the act of one human killing another. And if there was one thing Kiryu now definitely wasn't, it was human.

Eh, whatever. Same difference.

Kiryu was outside of the prison's walls so quickly that he almost had to marvel at how long they'd managed to contain him. By that point alarms were sounding all throughout the facility, but it didn't matter in the slightest. Kiryu was finally free.

And so, for the first time in so very, very long, Kiryu began to laugh. To laugh without nervousness, without insecurity, without the foreboding sense that Kiryu's world could shatter at any moment.

Although…perhaps that was because Kiryu was now perfectly fine with the world shattering. Into as many fucking pieces as possible, preferably.

Still, Kiryu probably had to do something about that. There was so much to get to, now, and having all of Security on Kiryu's ass certainly wasn't going to make things easier. Kiryu could take them, of course; his new powers meant that they were no match. But that would take time – time which would be better spent tracking down Yusei Fudo, and exacting vengeance for 5000 years of betrayal.

As if in response, a sharp note resounded across Kiryu's mind, and the short mental prod that followed brought Kiryu's hand to his pocket, which suddenly seemed far fuller than it had only seconds ago. Withdrawing his fingers, Kiryu now saw that between them were clutched a number of Duel Monsters cards, almost all of which Kiryu had never seen before in his life (heh-heh…life) and yet which contained such obvious power that Kiryu's mind was already racing with potential strategies.

Another "note," and Kiryu turned over the top card of the deck. Then Kiryu's smile grew wider.

Kiryu didn't require a Duel Disk to play it. Kiryu just held it aloft and invoked the name. And lo and behold…his God was there by his side.

Towering over the prison at a height greater than many of Neo Domino's own skyscrapers, Ccapac Apu dwarfed the being that had summoned it by a factor of hundreds…and yet, there was no question of the relationship between them. Kiryu understood, and fully accepted, that his full and eternal fealty was to be sworn to this great behemoth's service; this entity of eldritch darkness who had haunted Kiryu's dreams for weeks leading up to his death.

But in return, the Earthbound God would grant boons of great and terrible power to the avatar that had made it manifest for the first time in 5000 years. This was one of them.

The Security Officers, civilian staff, and prisoners alike screamed in fear as enormous hands began to crush them en-mass, the ceilings and walls caving in as shadowy fingers the size of cars brought every last meter of the prison crashing down around them.

And as they proceeded to die off by the hundreds, their souls not even allowed to escape to some measure of afterlife as they were instead siphoned into the great giant, to fuel its unending hunger…Kiryu just continued to laugh. More intensely, and with greater abandon, than Kiryu ever had in life.

This was Satisfaction.

[-]

"You are Kiryu Kyosuke?" asked a man in a cloak.

"Depends on who wants to know," answered Kiryu disdainfully.

After his rather…demonstrative escape, Kiryu had been laying low in the streets of Neo Domino, his God's subtle song telling Kiryu that it was not yet time to pursue his vengeance actively. This made sense to Kiryu, even if he wasn't all that happy about it; Yusei was still in the Satellite, and Kiryu barely knew enough about this city to make his way around, much less leave it. For now, Kiryu needed to wait for a better opportunity.

It was fortunate, then, that Kiryu no longer needed to eat or drink or sleep. Not to mention the heightening of all of Kiryu's natural senses, and a few others besides. It made it so that, far from being difficult to evade capture, Kiryu would've almost had to go out of his way to even be noticed by the forces currently searching for him. Otherwise the undead young man seemed almost to fade into the shadows that surrounded him.

Which made it all the stranger that this man had located Kiryu so easily.

"Allow me to introduce myself, avatar of the giant's might. My name is Rudger Goodwin," said the stranger, lowering his hood to reveal dark skin and silvery hair…as well as eyes that were as black as the night sky above.

Or as dark as Kiryu's own, for that matter.

"Who…who the fuck are you?" Kiryu demanded, stepping forward to look this strange man directly in the eyes. While the pitch-black sclera and facial markings mirrored, if not matched, those now adorning Kiryu's own visage, seeing the rest of this "Rudger" man's features up-close would likely have nauseated anyone who didn't happen to be Kiryu.

What Kiryu had initially taken as evidence of foreign ancestry was, it became immediately clear, not the man's natural hue. His skin appeared as if blackened by fire, the consistency of ash or charcoal, and the hair…the hair seemed as if all life, and all color, had been sapped from it in one fell swoop.

"I? I was the first of a new breed," replied Rudger, smiling with amusement at Kiryu's tone. "A breed to which you now belong, Kiryu Kyosuke. Welcome, vessel of the great God Ccapac Apu…to the Dark Signers."

And with that, it struck Kiryu with full and unrestrained totality: he was being addressed by a dead man. Why this unnerved Kiryu so much, when he knew intellectually that he was no more than a walking corpse now himself, Kiryu couldn't be quite sure…but Kiryu supposed he never thought this might be what he'd become in the future.

"I…I have some questions," spoke Kiryu, swearing under his breath at his brief stutter.

"I'm sure you do. But walk with me while you express them, if you please," requested Rudger, motioning for Kiryu to follow him. "I don't expect you're ready to travel by geoglyph yet, which means we need to catch a boat very shortly if we hope to make it back to the Satellite before dawn."

That was enough for Kiryu to accede; passage to Satellite, and therefore to Yusei, wasn't something Kiryu was about to refuse right now.

Kiryu found himself struggling to keep in-step with Rudger, despite the other man's greater breadth, as Kiryu proceeded to ask, "So…can you tell me about these 'Dark Signers'? How many others are like you and me?"

"We were each chosen, at the moment of our deaths, to live on as incarnations of the darkness that has blotted this planet for millions of years. Just as you were, my friend," responded Rudger as they walked. "As of now, you are the fourth of our kind to be made manifest. You will meet Demak and Misty soon enough. I think you will like them."

Kiryu thought about that for a moment. Another four-person team, with a mission to change Satellite forever? It was almost too familiar…although Kiryu wasn't sure whether that made him happy or furious.

"Of course, even with the addition of your own strengths, our family will not be complete," Rudger added, in such a way that Kiryu almost had to wonder if the older Dark Signer could hear what Kiryu was thinking. "Still, if my visions are correct…we are at least three years away from Aslla piscu selecting its own avatar. Chacu Challhua…I'm uncertain if it will even be strong enough to take on a host in time. And the condor is entirely a wild card. Uru has never trusted it, and so neither do I."

As Rudger said this he ran one great gloved hand over a marking on right arm, resembling a large spider. While Kiryu hadn't understood most of that last sentence, he figured that "Uru" must be the name of Rudger's own God. He said it with such simple and self-evident reverence, in the same manner that Kiryu always spoke the name of the entity represented by his own, intricate birthmark.

Kiryu did pick up on one other detail in Rudger's musings, however. "Wait, wait…back the fuck up. Three years?!" Kiryu couldn't help but exclaim.

"You must learn patience, my young friend," Rudger told him as they came to the edge of the bay, gesturing silently to a small boat emblazoned with that same spider symbol. "The first lesson you will take to heart as a Dark Signer is that the dead have nothing but time."

Kiryu didn't particularly like that answer, but he followed Rudger onto the boat all the same.

"Do not worry, Kiryu Kyosuke. The day of your glorious vengeance – of all of our vengeances – shall come sooner than you know," Rudger went on as he directed another cloaked man to start up the vehicle; the man simply stared blankly forward and nodded, his gray-trimmed hood waving in the cool night winds. "I have ascertained enough about you to know that you desire nothing more than the Signer Yusei Fudo's head on a platter. That shall come in time. But destiny has foretold a time and a place for these things, and we must act accordingly."

Kiryu said nothing in response to this, merely sitting upon the rear of the boat and watching the city he'd stared at all his life with a mixture of jealousy and revulsion slip away, as Kiryu returned under cover of darkness to the Hell that had been his whole existence.

[-]

Rudger's headquarters, it had turned out, were…interesting. Certainly it wasn't something Kiryu had ever expected could be found in the Satellite, much less buried under the barren B.A.D. zone.

Everywhere Kiryu turned was another impressive sight, a gothic painting by some presumably long-dead European guy or a sculpture of monstrosities barely capable of being captured in a single form. There was a thick layer of cobwebs over just about everything, though Kiryu found that to be more likely a deliberate aesthetic choice, given the identity of the man now leading Kiryu through the halls.

One room they passed even seemed to contain, so far as Kiryu could tell from his brief glance, every single Duel Monsters card ever printed and a few besides. But Kiryu didn't stop there. Instead Kiryu followed Rudger to a door just down the hall, which the other Dark Signer opened with a flash of his birthmark.

"It is time, my fellows! Welcome unto you our new brother…Kiryu Kyosuke, bearer of the giant's mark!" he announced dramatically as they walked in. One man, in a cloak with golden trim, came up to offer his hand.

"Demak Kera, avatar of the monkey God," he introduced himself. "I hope that your death was not too distressing."

Kiryu gingerly accepted the handshake, though not without tensing up first. Kiryu's attention then turned briefly to the young woman still at the table which took up most of this chamber, who gave a curt nod in Kiryu in recognition before returning to a thick stack of papers.

"So…what's your deal, bitch? Owl God or something?" quipped Kiryu, a little irritated at his silent rebuffing.

"Lizard, actually. But let's get something straight, before we go any further. You do not call me 'bitch,' got it?" said the female who, by process of elimination, must be Misty. She still did not look up from her paperwork, but Kiryu had clearly struck a nerve.

"Shit…this is why I hate working with women. Overreact to everything," Kiryu said, only half-seriously; getting a rise out of this unknown Misty was looking to be quite a bit of fun.

"Do not be so quick to judge, my friend," Rudger cut in – probably not a moment too soon, given the purple glow starting to surround Misty's hands. "As time passes here and you get to know the rest of our 'little family,' you may find that they fascinate you more than you'd expect. Demak, for example, used to be a high-ranking Industrial Illusions employee. His knowledge of Duel Monsters is probably second only to the late Pegasus Crawford or Hayato Maeda themselves. And Misty was quite the genius in her youth. Graduating at seventeen with a double-major, plus modeling and dueling careers on the side, makes for quite the impressive resume…even before you add her selection as vessel for the Jibakushin Ccarayhua."

"And as I've never gone to a single day of school, all you just said pretty much means jack-shit to me," Kiryu replied, though he was not particularly angry. Kiryu did like saying it, though.

As for Misty, she finally put down the papers and sighed deeply, before turning to the man in the red-trimmed cloak. "Rudger, may I have a word? Privately?" she asked.

"Of course, child," responded Rudger, motioning her over to the other side of the room. "What is on your mind?"

"Are you…absolutely certain that this is the one Ccapac Apu chose?" she whispered, in such low tones that Kiryu would've never been able to overhear them in life. But another prod from his God and Kiryu was feeling remarkably in-tune with his new senses, even if he still didn't quite understand all of them.

"He has the mark, and more to the point he has already managed to summon his Jibakushin into reality. Kiryu is our next member; there is no question about it," said Rudger.

"But he's…he's a…have you seen his physiognomy? He isn't well!" Misty continued to murmur harshly. "He has the one sign we care about, but so many others too. Impetuousness, arrogance, pride, a lack of understanding of his limits…these are not the makings of a good compatriot!"

"Then you should do your utmost to teach him better in the months ahead," Rudger rejoined, this time more coldly. "His aid will be invaluable as we approach our endgame. He was formerly a companion of two of the Signers…one of whom he has sworn a bloody vendetta against, and both of whom are destined to meet and join forces with Aki Izayoi within the next three years."

That last statement silenced Misty completely; Kiryu made a mental note to ask why at some point, preferably in the most dickish manner possible.

Misty just sighed again – or at least, as close as a being could come to doing so without actually exhaling air – and returned to the table, turning to Kiryu with a shake of her head. "Let's try this again," she said, if partially through gritted teeth. "My name is Misty Lola. Since we don't have any choice in the matter…I welcome you to our home. Such as it is."

"Nice to meet ya…bitch," Kiryu shot back, laughing like a maniac as he did. Kiryu really and truly didn't mean it this time, but it was just so damn fun to play with her a bit.

"Do you…have need of anything from the outside world?" Misty pressed on, choosing to ignore his response. "I've become capable of reliably glamouring my eyes and face so they appear human, and have used that to restart my modeling career at Rudger's…behest. So I can purchase anything that his magic cannot already provide."

Kiryu puzzled over this for a while…then snapped his fingers.

"Could you pick me up a boombox?" Kiryu asked, still recovering from his latest laughing fit. "Something with some kick-ass speakers. I want to blast that shit."

"You want me to get you a…stereo?" repeated Misty, looking bewildered. "Is that seriously the first thing you thought of?"

"Hey, don't look at me. Just saying, this place could use some bitchin' Music," Kiryu said, snickering again.

"I'm telling ya…it'd be so fucking satisfying."