Disclaimer: I do not own YGO 5ds.

A/N:

Satellite refers to the location

satellite(s) refers to its residents

The chapter title is not a pun or analogy, this chapter really is about corporate planning, whatever little that's still possible inside the Satellite. If you don't like the business side of things, feel free to skip this chapter.

"Do you mean what you said?" Galen suddenly broke the silence. "Are you really going to let them stay?" He searched my face, careful to avoid mentioning the cause of our meeting with the Magicians.

"Sure," I nodded. I know that he lost the area to them (whatever that means), so resentment was natural, but I needed him to work through his petty rivalry so they could work together to get me out of the Satellite. "I know you guys had a history," I began. I mean, I was going to help them out after I get out of here, really,

"They're fine," Galen said a little too quickly. He hesitated, and continued with more sincerity "they still send the same amount of food to the orphanages after they took over, so I guess I'm okay with them. I still don't like them though."

"And you don't have to," I assured him, trying to put a smile on my lips, "we're not going to like everybody we meet in life, and that's okay."

He nodded slowly and sank into deep thought for the duration of our journey. These internet gems (note sarcasm here) sounded very deep if you've never heard anything like it before, which he wouldn't have because he didn't have internet or a computer.

...

"Here we are," he finally said, after over an hour of trudging through broken roads and rubble. If I had known it was going to be this long, I would have taken my chance with Vincent's scrap metal collection. He picked his way through what I would have assumed to be landfill. Excellent hideout, if you don't mind the smell, the bacteria, the trash, and whatever is flowing out from the piles of trash. I followed carefully, praying that I would not cut myself and die of tetanus.

"Can I help you?" A black-haired teenager stepped out from a tunnel underneath the piles of trash.

I examined him closely. Anti-gravity crab-shaped hair, check; short blue leatherish jacket, check; adorable blue eyes even though you'd think the protagonist would be Japanese given that this is a Japanese anime, check. Was this the technological expert we were looking for? I looked back at Galen inquiringly.

Galen grunted in annoyance, "No you can't, I was hoping to miss you. Everybody hopes they miss you when they come here. I'm looking for Nervin." Apparently not.

"Um, hi," I greeted the protagonist with a smile, debating whether to turn around immediately and leave, lest I attract unwanted attention from Rex Goodwin for having any connections with his precious little Signer, and thus be locked up for life. On the other hand, I wasn't sure how many people in the Satellite can build what I want, given its general abandoned state for the last 17 (16? 15?) years.

"I'm Yusei Fudo," the teenager introduced himself a little defensively, obviously not unfamiliar with hostility from random strangers.

"I'm None-of-Your-Business," Galen replied, I laughed awkwardly, the pink-haired teenager isn't usually like this.

"Nice to meet you," I grinned, trying to offset the hostility radiating off of Galen, "you're pretty well-known around here."

"So's salmonella," Galen interrupted before Yusei had a chance to respond to my compliment and pushed past us, storming inside.

I can't really blame him. I mean,the rise of the Enforcers looks very different from the point of view of a normal satellite. Two years ago, a particularly vicious duel gang conquered all other duel gangs, then tried to destroy everybody's duel disks and take down Sector Security. Thankfully, they were eventually defeated. All the duel gangs they defeated resurfaced with a vigor, while tension between the Sector and satellites were at an all-time high. Understandably, to the vast majority of the Satellite that didn't know them personally, the Enforcers were hardly popular.

"Most people still can't get over what the Enforcers did," Yusei explained candidly, "I'm afraid we didn't leave the Satellite much except chaos and tightened security."

"And how long ago what that?" I asked, trying to sound casual and trying to establish a definite timeline.

"It'll be 19 months next Wednesday," Yusei replied as he went back in, leaving the door open for me to follow. I swear I only followed him because I know him from the anime and he's probably not going to kill me, because this looked exactly like the sort of place people got killed in.

Aside from the physical limitations of this residence, its electronics were indeed quite impressive for the Satellite. I saw a computer, a television, a radio, even an obviously self-made heater. That gave me hope.

"Nervin's still at work, he should be back soon," Yusei informed us, sitting down at a surprisingly comfortable-looking sofa. More surprising because of its existence than anything else.

I looked over to see his half-finished duel runner leaning against the wall, opened my mouth, closed it, and couldn't help opening it again like a dying fish.

Galen cast me a curious look.

"Do you just leave it there?" I finally asked after fighting through my initial speechlessness.

"Nobody's ratted me out yet," Yusei shrugged, filled with a confidence in humanity that I simply did not possess, even before I got stuck in a place where starvation is the norm rather than the exception. "Any friend of Nervin's is a friend of mine."

"Yet! Nobody's ratted you out yet!" I couldn't keep the exasperation out of my voice. "And hasn't anybody told you about the whole 'friend of a friend' thing?"

The ex-Enforcer looked at me uncomprehendingly. "Are you going to rat me out of Security?" He asked directly.

"No," I admitted, refusing to be defeated, "But that's not the point."

"What are you guys doing here? Maybe I can give you a hand." Yusei offered, completely changing the subject.

"We don't want your help." Galen answered for me.

I smiled apologetically at Yusei but was secretly relieved. Though the protagonist of this series was probably better at literally everything than literally anybody else (not using literally in a figurative sense here), I was willing to settle for a lower quality if that meant not going to jail.

"I'll see if Nervin's back," Yusei nodded good-naturedly., passing into one of the tunnels and leaving us with his duel runner. I know he can probably duel us and win it back, but what if we refused to duel him? Actually, what happens when people just comes in and steals stuff when nobody's home? Though I guess that's more of a general problem for everybody who lives in tunnels and not have doors or privacy or security.

"Hi Galen," a young man in almost formal clothing walked in from the outside, interrupting my runaway thoughts. "What do you need this time?"

"Good to see you again," Galen nodded, "my friend is looking for you."

"Hi," I inspected the man in front of me, holding out my hand. He was by far the oldest person I've met so far, maybe late twenties. He was almost smartly dressed, in a shirt, sweater vest, tie and glasses, all of which were difficult to come by in an abandoned city. The laptop in his hand didn't look standard-issue either. I don't love the spider-shaped man-bun thing though, nor the blue-hair/green vest color scheme, but I've come to realize aesthetics aren't the first priority in the Satellite.

"You can call me Nervin," He shook my hand quickly and didn't bother asking for my name, "What can I do for you?"

He waved his hands in the general direction of the sofas and sat down in front of the computer desk.

"I'm Yuki, Yuki Tono," I smiled my best 'I'm not trapped in a post-apocalyptic city and secretly dying inside' smile while carefully sitting back down in the surprisingly-new couch. "I was wondering if you could build something like a portable clip-on radio, a radio that you can wear on your ears."

Electronic personal entertainment unrelated to dueling is virtually uncharted territory in this world, so while this is not a great product idea, it should be good enough. It's dangerous to have great ideas in the Satellite.

"That it?" Galen complained, "That's what you dragged me all the way here for?"

I wanted to start small. In case this guy sells the idea behind my back, or some Domino suit comes and forces the idea out of my hands.

"I want to set up a small plant here in the Satellite," I continued as though uninterrupted, "to produce and distribute these clip-on radios. I think there's a real gap in personal entertainment right now." That's like saying the Satellite roads were 'slightly used'.

"There aren't any private factories here for a reason," Nervin answered pessimistically, glossing over all the conditions that created the hostile environment, "you really think your business will stand out from the crowd?"

"Factories in Satellites can't compete with the equipment, infrastructure and educated workforce the City, but those disadvantages can be compensated with a unique product. I'm presuming clip-on radios are novel even in Domino City?" I was just winging it now, I hadn't been prepared for this many questions over a purchase order (which I was going to put on Galen's tab).

"How long do you think before the place becomes profitable?" Nervin asked, showing the first sign of genuine interest in the idea.

"If you can design something made solely from trash we find in the Satellite, a week tops," I answered confidently, "the idea is to first sell to Sector Security." I smirked when I saw their eyes widen, then quickly hid the smile, "they go on patrol all day with very little to do (mostly because they're responsible for very little in the Satellite, and mostly the above-ground population), and since there's no regulation against it, I imagine a little bit of entertainment would be welcomed."

Yep, the idea is to corrupt our city's finest.

"That's actually a really good idea," I was a little insulted at Nervin's surprise and did my best to hide it.

"Would you care to join me?" I offered. I probably needed an engineer of some sort for a factory, the most assembling I've ever done was Ikea furniture. Plus, if he did, I could pay him in shares rather than cash (which I didn't have).

"No," Nervin turned me down flatly, obviously surprised. Sensing the harshness of his own tone, he amended, "I, I'm currently... I want to help somebody who can bring hope to the Satellite, someone who can change this place for the better. Your idea sounds great, but I'm afraid it just doesn't measure up."

...

There're many ways to improve the situation in the Satellite, most of them weren't even expensive or time-consuming, they just required better perspective than what satellite residents, who weren't educated past grade school, possessed.

An idea struck me suddenly and leeched onto me. It wasn't part of my optimized strategy for getting out of Satellite, nor would it be safe or profitable. But by Ra (Is Ra still a thing in this world?) I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it to remind myself where I was from, that I wasn't just another satellite with a good idea, that there can be a better world, that even this trash-heap of a town wasn't permanent.

"I was thinking," I said uncertainly, critically assessing the idea for the first time, "if we could collect water from the air."

That got both their attention. Centuries after the Industrial Revolution, water again became a valuable commodity in the Satellite. Though tap water of questionable quality was available from the factories, the factories themselves are located on the outskirts of Satellite, the most crime-ridden areas due to their proximity to Neo Dominos. Getting water was not only exhausting, but also dangerous. All because Goodwin didn't want to shell out for the pipes after the previous water system was severely damaged by Zero Reverse.

"All we need is a modified dehumidifier." I continued slowly. The idea is hardly novel, the Genius machine already exists in my reality, if not yet popularized.

Galen stared at me, wide-eyed, open-mouthed. I poked him before he began to drool.

Nervin, on the other hand, watched me like a hawk. Even when Galen frantically tried to wipe non-existent drool (which I assured him was there) off his face, the older man didn't crack a smile.

"You want to create water." He stated each word with a finality, Galen grabbed my wrist in the tension.

"Collect water," I insisted on setting the record straight, creating water sounded so much more impressive, and thus much more likely to attract unwanted attention.

"Do you have any particular specifications?" He recovered his composure and asked calmly, typing rapidly on his laptop.

"No, as long as we can make it from things readily available in the Satellite. And I'll need several copies of the blueprints of course, for the generator too."

"The blueprints cost extra," he replied without looking up.

"That's fine," I nodded.

"Just out of curiosity," Nervin paused, his eyes still trained on the screen of his laptop, "what do you want to do with the blueprints?"

"We're going to give it to everybody," I said airily, as though that was the most natural thing to do. In the past minutes that the idea came to me, I had debated making a business out of it, but to sell humidity, when most people have to labor incessantly for water, that's a level of low even I wouldn't sink into.

Nervin froze. The rhythmic clicking of keys stopped for half a minute. I looked on cautiously as he straightened up and shut off the lid on his laptop for the first time. He studied me from under his glasses till I shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. Nervin pinched the ridge of his nose, then finally demanded forcefully, "Do you have any idea what you're doing? What you're getting yourself into? What you're getting all of us into?"

His disbelief fueled an anger inside me that I managed to bottle up thus far.

Rex Goodwin were keeping these people in the Satellite like farm animals, raised for maximum population to feed the immortals. The rest of the country treated their citizens in the slums like oil in my reality- use as much as was necessary to maximize profits, neglect all moral consequences, and hope that they don't run out. The standards of governance had sunk to a new low.

"You mean the City wouldn't be happy about losing a way to control the Satellite? Tokyo may want my head on a stick if the idea spreads? Heck even the people I'm trying to help can easily be turned against me?" I stated each question more quietly than the last, my anger magically cooled with each question. He had the good graces to look abashed at the last question.

"Yes," I inclined my head just a tiny bit. "I think so. So I have to do this now, before I start having second thoughts, before I get scared off, before I listen to everybody around me and think of access to water as a privilege rather than a right." I'm not doing this for them, I'm doing this for me. To prove that I was still human, I was still humane.

"It's been this way since before there was Satellite," Nervin commented drily.

"And it would be this way long after the Satellite disappears, "I replied solemnly, "Unless something is done about it. Join me," I offered again hopefully.

"Why us?" Nervin questioned.

"If someone has to do it, why not us?"

"And you think you can do it?" He questioned, "How?"

"This is just a temporary glitch in civilization that'll be fixed soon. So if somebody can do it, why not us?" I shrugged. With limited resources and Domino government hovering in the backdrop, the odds really weren't in my favor.

"Why?"

Why? I paused. I couldn't explain to him my despair of being trapped in this world, or my indifference to continue living inside it should it stay the same.

Japan, well, what's left of the island of Japan after two more world wars, was still one of the most advanced civilizations in the world, with a population of roughly 10 million left, and 9 of them lived far beneath what my civilization had considered the poverty line. These numbers were about the global average. Such widespread poverty being taken for granted just reminds me that there are no better havens to which I could escape; ruined slums were the norm rather than the exception. Why else would everybody in the Satellite try to escape to the forbidden Domino City, rather than literally any other city in the world?

"...It's something to do." I said finally. It's something worth doing.

Nervin remained silent for a long time. His eyes were trained on me, but seemed to focus on something much further in the distance.

"I don't know if you'll regret doing this," I added after some thought, "but I know you'll regret it if you don't."

Part of my felt guilty, for tempting a complete stranger into my very-possibly-temporary vendetta, which may lead to a very permanent imprisonment. That part didn't stand a chance against the rest of me. I had already said too much, if Nervin doesn't join me, there's no reason to think he wouldn't turn on me as soon as I left. I wasn't aware of any policy against private manufacturers in the Satellite, but numerous official mandates had, inadvertently or otherwise, kept profit-generating activities to a minimum.

"We all need something to do," Nervin said finally, his eyes focused on me again, "don't we?"

I secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then shook Galen's hand off my wrist in pain, waiting for the colors to return to my fingers.

Galen had been unnaturally quiet since he heard my plans, now he finally reacted, "so we're going to give everybody water?" He asked dreamily.

"I'm afraid not everybody," I feared severe retaliation from Domino City if I controlled the water supply, even of just the Satellite. Ideally, the people of the Satellite would individually have access to a cheap, practical water-collection machine that would increase their water supply.

"But we will sure as hell try," Nervin promised, a genuine smile on his lips.

Galen looked like he just saw Disneyland for the first time, or porn. Whichever.

I leaned back, relaxing for the first time since a couple of hours ago (Oh god, had it only been a couple of hours?), and probably for the last time in the foreseeable future.

"What are you waiting for, let's go, let's go, let's go!" Galen was jumping up and down as Nervin went through the various piles of... stuff, in the subway platform-turned living room.

"I need to write a letter saying goodbye" Nervin responded, a little somber.

"Why?" Galen asked in surprise, "we don't live far, you can still come back!"

"I hope to avoid involving them unnecessarily," Nervin responded, "the City can be, sensitive to these things'."

"So you're just, leaving?" Galen looked horrified. He was too young to have known loss.

"It's for the best." Nervin deadpanned, and refused to say more. As I later found out, the City generally paid no attention to the common satellite, but seeing as Yusei was one of the Enforcers, extra scrutiny is applied whenever possible.

"The same goes for you, Galen, you can still back out now." I added. I was unfamiliar with the workings of Domino City government, but since Nervin the native thought it was dangerous, I chose to proceed more cautiously.

"And miss the fun? Forget it! Count me in! It'll be like a secret mission nobody knows about. Galen Garfield, radio salesman by day, water master by night." He didn't look half as optimistic as his words, though the resolve was no less obvious. "Com'on Nerv, let's go already."

Ignoring Galen's protests, Nervin placed a hand on the teen's head to hold him down, "Pack up the stuff over there, we need raw materials to construct the designs."

"Oh yeah," Galen dialed his energy back down, "you do that. We don't have a lot of stuff. Or anywhere for you to stay yet."

"We'll find something," I wasn't fazed, half the houses I saw were abandoned.

"There're a couple of pre-war places we can crash at," Nervin offered.

"I don't like those buildings," Galen complained, "They gave me the creeps."

I remained silent, trying not to doze off, and hoping my stomach wouldn't suddenly announce the hunger pangs that were just starting to come back.

A/N: Nervin left Party-Yusei; Nervin joined your party. Continue quest?

The Genius machines are a real thing and collect usable water from the atmosphere. I'm more skeptical of its reliability in an area with low humidity, but near the ocean, it should work great. *coughCaliforniacough*

And I could never understand why people in the Satellite insisted on going to Domino. You're on an island, just take the boat and go literally anywhere. So I had to assume the rest of the world was at least as messed up as Domino City.