The following car rides turned out to be an unexpected learning experience.

So there was a whole BUNCH of information, apparently, about how to be a distraction!

And even MORE data about 'Things you shouldn't do as a distraction', to boot!

For example: A distraction is not supposed to inform your observing distractees about how the ongoing distraction is a distraction, unless (And this was important) said information was actually a GRANDER distraction from your initial 'attempts' at distraction and…

Well, it got a bit confusing honestly.

John figured it was sort of like double negatives. Like how the meaning could flip flop a dozen times or more with each additional condition or flag added to the statement… Similar to the 'But he knows that I know that he doesn't know that I knew that…'

Anyway, the point was: Jessica gave him a whole BUNCH of data about being 'subtle' and 'secretive' and 'not blurting out information to everyone who asks' and all sorts of stuff, as they traveled from potential new home to theoretical new base.

But in the end, most of it went over his head. "If I tried to do all that, I'd lose track of what I was lying about."

His sister huffed. "You don't even need to LIE most of the time! Just don't talk about certain topics!" She pointed at his outfit. "You could have talked about your costume, or that fake swamp, or even that picnic you had earlier! All SORTS of stuff can be used to keep yourself busy WITHOUT exposing sensitive information?"

Um. "How do I know what information is sensitive?" Was it like teeth? "Is some information easily embarrassed?"

Jessica grumbled. "Well, it can certainly be embarrassing to others, if nothing else. But, no… In general: If a conversation topic would inform people about what you plan to do or if something you say could detrimentally affect future goals or methods? That is sensitive information."

John considered that carefully… "That seems awfully broad, to be honest."

She sighed. "It is… The term 'small talk' applies here, and covers a bunch of information that is either mildly interesting or covers socially expected talking points such as how the individuals are doing, if they have plans, how the environment currently is, has been, or will be… And honestly, even THAT little bit of 'meaningless fluff' conversation might reveal something compromising if the person analyzing it is clever enough."

Yeah, no. "I can't do that. I can barely converse with people as it is: Being that cautious and self reflective seems doomed to failure. At least, for now… And for me and Grace. I'm sure Temptation could pull it off easily, but she'd likely fail on purpose just for the fun of it."

It was a little annoying at times, but honestly John sort of liked how crazy his demoness could be sometimes… Her pushing boundaries was basically her core state of being, and asking her to alter that would be like asking her to change who she was. Or something like that.

Or maybe he just liked her teasing?

Either way, it looked like 'common sense' was off the menu. "Could we at least set up some sort of time table? Have practice sessions and stuff?"

Because John was pretty sure he wasn't going to nail any of this on his first few tries.

His sister sighed. "Maybe next Realm… Here, it's already too late. I've had your System alter the car's color and shape several times between property visits, we've altered our routes a lot, and even tried teleportation a few times… And we are still being tracked."

Aww. "Sorry sis."

She chuckled as they turned down another road. "Don't worry about it. It has already happened and I'll deal with it… But yeah, not a good environment to practice 'common sense' in when my agents have detected dozens of unrelated information gathering teams working their way down here. I'm afraid your first few duels will be against 'undercover' reporters and contractors."

Hmm. "So no matter what we do, or what place we grab… Secrecy is off the table?"

Jessica nodded. "Yep."

Heh. "Then can we go loud?"

She raised her eyebrow.

Oh, this would be fun! "Forget the other stops: Let's find the largest property for sale with the fewest neighbors. I've got a plan!"

It was an AWESOME plan! And it was going to go great!

~~~Pocket System~~~

Cynthia hesitated when little Jasper stopped yanking on his leash, froze, and stared to the left. "Jasper? You alright boy?"

The tiny dog didn't move an inch.

That… That didn't seem right.

…Maybe he saw a squirrel or something?

Almost absent mindedly she turned to look left as well and…

The Johnson house was gone. Yard too. All of it.

Not like.. .Blown up or anything. Just as if some hand of god reached down and said 'This isn't here now' and so it be.

Way off in the distance, she could see the walls of the pit like some giant had sliced up the world like a huge pice of cake. The layers of grass, soil, gravel and sand, rock… The various sheered pipes and wiring, all suspiciously clean and somehow not draining or dripping or crumbling or…

She closed her eyes.

So: What was going on here?

Most likely, she had gone the wrong way when walking Jasper, and this was NOT the place where the Johnson house was supposed to be. Didn't exactly explain why her dog was now pretending to be a statue, but it felt MUCH more likely than other options.

For now, she put aside not knowing about this clearly bizarre construction project, and her brain helpfully pushed aside inconvenient details like 'that amount of material would take months to ship out' or 'construction crews would have been messing up neighborhood traffic for weeks now' or… All of that.

She also carefully glossed over the whole 'How did I mess up my daily walking route THIS badly' as a much lesser over all concern as well.

Then Cynthia heard Jasper whimper and her eyes flew open. "Are you… All… Right?"

The pit was gone.

Now the massive Johnson property, if this WAS the Johnson property, transitioned from cookie cutter house/yard/house/yard to house/yard/house/yard/SWAMP/yard/house, etc.

Like the air pressure actually shifted, the change was so sudden.

And on some sort of 'floating' metal sculpture of a massive lily pad was a castle.

Some odd part of her mind considered the artificial floating log bridge/driveway a nice touch, but the rest of her was done for the day. "Going home early today, Jasper."

Not forward though, she was going RIGHT back the way she came. Just in case.

Thankfully for once: her dog DIDN'T run around like a nutball as they both strategically retreated from whatever the hell THAT had been.

Cynthia was ALSO going to call out of work today and go take a nap or something. Just in case.

~~~Pocket System~~~

John grinned! "Alright, that should fix the pipes and power lines and… We are good!"

His sister however seemed concerned. "I am SURE we are not zoned for something like this. No way city hall would ever approve of anything this crazy."

Meh. "You'd be surprised, people here get a bit ODD when their Souls get reinforced to a certain extent… The laws are VERY flexible in some ways when it comes to eccentricities like this."

Though it was pretty darn bizarre to see paperwork fields requiring a 'documented deck matching said theme' in the approval process. Being a real estate agent here must be a nightmare.

Not that it matters much. "Anyway, this is now our [[Home]] so she sort of retroactively files it all away to make this sort of thing either approved or added to various exception lists. It's pretty darn convenient!"

The massive castle suddenly glowed a little more, the torches were a touche more bright, and the sounds of the surrounding swamp soothed slightly as the world grew more hospitable.

Daww, we love you too [[Home]]! "Anyway, the girls and I can hang out HERE now while YOU go out there and be all secretive and stuff! This way we can continue our ongoing 'distraction' mission which I would argue is TOTALLY a real thing, and you don't have to worry about where we are or us getting into… Well, not getting into as MUCH trouble as we might wandering around the city."

And he could get his whole outfit on again! Frog Emperor for life, Frog Emperor forever!

His sister huffed as Grace giggled in the background and Temptation… Uh. Shit, where did she go? Pocket?

[[Temptation is directing further modifications to 'The Pad' castle. Current location is now marked.]]

Oh dear. "Grace, could you please stop your sister from adding more dungeons? I'm sure five are enough." Although why someone would need so many odd chairs and stuff with all that leather was beyond him… Oh. OH! Yeah, best get that handled quick.

His angel lit up with a smile! "Will do, my Lord! My Lady, if you will excuse me?" And she was off, skipping her way towards the welcoming structure.

Jessica herself was walking back to the car. "I'm just going to go park this… This place DOES have a garage or something on the other side of the log bridge, yes?"

Hmm? "Oh yes, see the ramp over there? The log bridge itself is basically a hollow parking area, for some reason my Pocket System is really good at designing those things."

Kind of a complicated setup really considering they were only using one Crafted car at a time right now, but at least visitors and future Duel Monster Duelists would have somewhere to park when they came over to challenge the Frog Emperor: Lord of Amphibians!

He he he he! This was going to be so FUN!

~~~Pocket System~~~

What was his life? "Falcon this is sparrow, the Target is now entering the castle. Over."

The radio spike static. "...Say again? Over."

Damn it. "The Target is at property location code Tango, the one confirmed as purchased as of 1833. Property has been altered: Is now a castle. Target is… Target has now entered the castle. Over."

The pause was longer this time.

Eventually, the static came back, the field officer on the wire now. "Orange 8 onion 3 sand 7? Over."

God damn it, NO I haven't been compromised! "Crow 2 Cheddar 9 Pine 12! Tango is compromised and altered, Target has entered the castle, visual lost! Get recon to observe Tango, update birdhouse NOW! Over."

The radio clicked. "Roger. Shift early in 10. Over."

Fuck it, he didn't care if his shift was cut early. Let a few more observers come out here and be called crazy, he couldn't care less! "Roger. Over."

Why did he always get the strange observation taskings? First that one kid who wandered about dressed like a giant squirrel and now this frog kid! Sheesh.

~~~Pocket System~~~

Pegasus blinked at the report. "I'm sorry?"

The minion reiterated the incredibly long amount of nonsense that he had already been subjected to already.

…Alright then. "And does this 'Frog Emperor' have any obvious or referenced connections with any of the known Millennium Items?"

Not that he had any clue which one it would be. Nor did this show ANY indication that it was related to his ongoing, past, or future goals…

The man shook his head. "No sir!"

Well, that's that then. "Keep a token observation of this new 'Emperor', as he has decided to… 'Build a castle'? Honestly, what is this world coming to…" It wasn't even a toonish one, just a boring normal castle that he had dozens of already.

Considering if he should alter one of his own existing properties to more properly display the sort of style one should aim for in life, Maximillion Pegasus realized he had been fully distracted at some point.

Oops!

Focus. "As the boy has shown up in the same city as Yugi-boy, let me know if they end up interacting in any way or should the situation change. I'll see if the research team has any additional sensing equipment they deem useful for further investigation, but that should be the end of this."

And they saluted and were off and he finally had a moment to himself to consider this oddity. "...Perhaps I should focus on updating my castle on Duelist Kingdom island?" A bit more color wouldn't be that bad of an idea after all…