Chapter 6: Busy Day

None of the Breakers had enjoyed such food and hospitality since they were kids. Tatsumaki had treated them to breakfast at a favorite local cafe of his, where they were treated to the sight of him downing a truly ludicrous ten cups of coffee in a single hour long sitting. How he didn't vibrate into the next dimension from caffeine overdose would forever be a mystery. After that came the clothes shopping, which would undoubtedly take up the rest of their morning and probably a chunk of the afternoon.

Tatsumaki led them to an enormous boutique that he obviously frequented, since the doorman knew him by name.

"Alright, everyone," he said. "Go pick out three outfits each for yourselves: shirt, pants, underwear, socks, shoes, etc. It won't be a whole lot but it's a start, and it'll at least let you rotate what you wear throughout the week, unlike now."

Most of the gang was so used to having to force whatever secondhand clothes they came across to work that they didn't really know their sizes. Tatsumaki left the task of helping them to the employees. Emi and Yoroi were the exceptions, so the three of them ended up perusing the racks together. Tatsumaki noticed Emi out of the corner of his eye as she was rushing towards the changing room excitedly.

"Seems like she's found something," remarked Tatsumaki. "How about you? Find anything that catches your fancy?"

"A few things," replied Yoroi. "Honestly, it's hard to choose. This place has so much."

"Well, I may be biased, but I think you'd look good in black," replied the black-clad teenager as he held up a black short-sleeve collared shirt.

"Isn't that kinda cheating, though? Doesn't the saying go that everyone looks good in black?" asked Yoroi.

"True, but even then, some pull it off better than others. Here, try it on."

Yoroi took the shirt from Tatsumaki's hands, as well as a pair of jeans from the shelf, and headed to the changing room.

Shortly after Yoroi went in, Emi came out, sporting a knee-length dark blue sundress and matching heels. "How do I look?" she asked.

"Wonderful!" replied Tatsumaki. "Though, the heels might not be suitable for dueling. You might wanna pick up a pair of normal shoes as well."

"Good point," she replied, and headed back into the changing room to redress.

Yoroi came out of his changing room shortly afterwards, wearing his normal clothes. "Okay, fine, the black shirt is cool," he admitted begrudgingly. "I'll take it."

"Pick out some other stuff, too. You already know how quickly clothes wear out when you have to wear the same thing every single day."

Roughly three hours later, the entirety of the Breakers left the store, new outfits in their shopping bags. Tatsumaki made sure no one saw how much he'd had to spend on it by sending them all outside before the clerk was done ringing everything up.
"Good, now that we all have new threads, let's head back home so you can all change," said Tatsumaki as they walked. "The sooner you can get out of your normal clothes, the better. Plus, I could go for some more coffee."

"More?!" exclaimed Jo. "How much caffeine do you drink on a daily basis, kid?"

Tatsumaki laughed. "Enough to give you a heart attack, probably. My blood has to be at least sixty percent caffeine by volume by this point."

"That can't be healthy," remarked Emi. "You should probably slow down before it kills you."

"I'll be fine," replied Tatsumaki, waving off her concern. "It keeps me focused, helps me think."

"Even so," said Enzo, "it would kinda suck for us if your heart just gave out and that anonymous call you set up implicated us in your death when it was your own fault."

"Fair point. Guess I can try to cut back on my coffee for all of your sakes, but no promises."

"So after we get changed, what next?" asked Yoroi.

"We go for lunch, and then we edit our decks. My mom's card collection is in my bedroom, so I'll have to wheel it out to the dining room area, since it's the only place with a large enough table to fit all of us."

"You already bought us breakfast and new clothes," noted Emi. "Now you're gonna buy us lunch and also share your mom's old cards with us? Don't you think you're being a little too generous?"

"Not at all," replied Tatsumaki. "Nothing I'm spending or giving is anything that can't be easily replaced, especially once we've made it to the Pro Circuit. Think of the things I do as an investment, rather than as charity. Keeping you guys fed and clothed, and helping you improve your decks and skills makes sure that we're always Dueling at our best and have the highest chance of achieving our goal."

"I mean, that makes sense and all, but still. I feel bad that you're taking on so much for us."

"Well, you can pay me back by beating the Dustshoot Gang tomorrow and driving them out of the slums. Once the Breakers have that entire territory to ourselves and we don't have to worry about constant turf wars, we can start participating in some of the local tournaments and making a name for ourselves."

"Don't you worry about that," exclaimed Enzo. "Even though I'm not gonna be participating tomorrow, the Breakers won't let down their new benefactor! The Dustshoot Gang is going down!"

"Happy to hear it," said Tatsumaki.

At the house, the gang members all headed to their respective bedrooms to change into their new clothes. Afterwards, they left again, and stopped at a small ramen stand just around the corner for lunch.

Everyone ordered fairly cheaply, as they weren't used to getting the 'good stuff', with the exception of Tatsumaki, who got a bowl of miso ramen with chashu pork and an extra egg.

"So, hey, Tatsumaki," began Emi as they ate. "I get that you wanna get to the Pro Circuit and all, but why are you so set on being a Duelist in the first place? It may not be my place to ask, but if you don't even want people to know who your mom is, why become a Duelist?"

"It's not that I don't want people to know who she is," replied Tatsumaki, "it's that I don't want them to know until after I've already proven myself on my own merit. After I'm already a Pro, it won't matter to me as much if people know."

"Sorry, maybe I misspoke. What I mean is, why are you so set on proving yourself like this?"

"Well, I guess ever since I was a kid, I've always had it pretty easy because of my mom's name and fame, not to mention her money. Rin Adachi was pretty much a household name in the Dueling world, almost as prolific as Yugi Mutou himself, so everyone just expected me to have that same kind of potential. It never really bothered me, though. Not until dad left. He was an aspiring Duelist as well, but no matter how much mom tried to help him, he was never good enough to break into the big leagues to Duel alongside her. Eventually, he grew tired of her always being so much better. I remember the day he left. He said he couldn't stand living in mom's shadow anymore. Even though I still resent him for leaving, I started to understand it a little better after she died. After the incident, everyone figured I'd take up my mom's deck and continue where she left off once I was old enough. I was constantly pestered about her deck, and whether I'd been practicing with it at all. "You're Rin's son", they'd say. "Of course you've gotta use her cards to keep her legacy alive." It was like I wasn't even my own person anymore. I was just Rin Junior. I want my legacy as a duelist to be its own thing, not just a sequel to my mom's."

"Damn," said Emi. "I'm sorry to hear that. Dealing with those kinds of expectations can be pretty rough, I imagine."

"It's fine. In the end, I did end up taking one card from her deck to use. The rest I got on my own, though. The only cards I even use from her collection are the super common ones that anyone could get their hands on, like Mystical Space Typhoon or Pot of Greed. I did have to track down a few rare cards on my own, though, like my Chaos Sorcerer."

"Damn, I woulda guessed that'd be the one you got from your mom's deck," said Enzo. "You're saying there's an even more rare card in your deck than that?"

"Yeah, there is," replied Tatsumaki, "but you'll just have to find out what it is when you see me play it."

After lunch, the gang went back to the house. Tatsumaki wheeled a large cart full of cards into the dining room, and they all got to work editing their decks. The cards were all sorted by type (Monster, Spell, Trap), and the Monsters were subdivided by their types, making it easy for people like Kiri and Manda to find relevant cards, since their decks were focused on a single type of monster.

Several hours of editing, testing, theorycrafting, and mock dueling later, they broke for dinner, and that's when Tatsumaki noticed the time.

"Ah, shit," he said. "I lost track of time. I was supposed to stop an hour ago to prep ingredients."

"I can help, if you want," offered Emi.

"Nah, I think we'll just order pizzas tonight. How does one medium three-topping per person sound?"

"I'm down for that," said Yoroi excitedly. "I can't remember the last time I had pizza that I didn't fish out of a trash can!"

"Alright, I'm gonna call them here in a bit. Everyone line up and we'll hand the phone off to the next person so they can place their order."

One by one, the Breakers ordered their pizzas. Tatsumaki got his with pepperoni, jalapeno, and pineapple. "What?" he asked when some of the others gave him weird looks. "The sweet and spicy combo is so good!"

Emi ordered sausage, green peppers, and mushrooms on hers. Yoroi got his with chicken, pepperoni, and bacon. Enzo got green peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Manda got chicken, spinach, and extra cheese. Kiri got ham, pineapple, and bacon. Jo got pepperoni, sausage, and jalapeno. Ryo settled for an order of garlic knots on account of being lactose intolerant.

"Enzo, you can contact the Dustshoot's leader, right?" asked Tatsumaki.

"Yeah. I was gonna set up the meet right after dinner."

"Good. The sooner we take them out, the better. There's several tournaments coming up that I want to compete in."

"Well, if everything goes as planned, we won't have any problem with that. The only thing that's been keeping us from competing is worrying about our turf being overrun while we're away."

"Don't worry, boss," said Manda. "With our newly suped-up decks and with how good our new talent is, there's no way we'll lose!"

"I hope you're right, Manda. We're putting a lot on the line here."

"True," admitted Jo. "But the kid seems to know what he's doing. I'm sure his plan will work."

"Right…" said Enzo hesitantly. "The kid's plan…"

"Something wrong, boss?" asked Jo.

"Nah, I'm fine. Let's just eat."

The strange tone of Enzo's voice didn't go unnoticed by Tatsumaki, but he elected to keep quiet about it for the time being. After dinner, Enzo stepped out of the room to call the leader of the Dustshoot Gang. After a few minutes, he came back in with a satisfied grin on his face.

"We're all set," he declared. "We're meeting in front of our hideout tomorrow at noon."

"Perfect," replied Tatsumaki, standing from his chair. "After this, we won't have to worry about the Dustshoots anymore. Now, I'm gonna head to bed. We'll need our rest for the Duels tomorrow."

Everyone filed into the kitchen, storing any leftover food they had into the fridge. As everyone headed to their rooms to retire for the night, Emi grabbed Tatsumaki by the arm, pulling him aside into the sunroom.

"We need to talk," she said firmly, making eye contact. Her expression was full of worry.

"Well, you have me here, so talk."

"Did you notice Enzo was acting kinda weird earlier? Like, he didn't seem to like it when Jo called it your plan."

"Yeah, I did, but I didn't think it would be smart to call attention to it."

"Think he might try to kick you out of the gang?"

"I don't know for sure, but I doubt it. I think he's just feeling weird about how much I seem to be running things instead of him lately."

"Maybe. You have been doing a lot for the Breakers: food, housing, clothes, and even making plans against rival gangs? It does sound a lot like you could be trying to replace him as the leader."

"I'm really not, but yeah, I guess it would look that way."

"You should probably talk to him about it before things get out of hand. If he starts to really think you're trying to take his place, who knows what he might do."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll talk to him about it tomorrow after we take down the Dustshoots. Doing it tonight in front of everyone just wasn't the right move."

"I guess you're right, but just be careful, okay? I'd hate for something to happen to you after everything you've done, both for your own sake and for ours."

"Don't worry, Emi. I won't let this all be for nothing. I promise you that."

Emi turned around and made for the door, stopping just before entering the next room.

"Tatsumaki, this plan of yours is really risky, but I'm gonna trust you. I haven't really trusted anyone besides Yoroi in a long time, but I really think you can pull us out of the way we've been living up till now. Please don't prove me wrong. Goodnight."

Before he could reassure her that things would work out, she left, heading for bed.

Tatsumaki shook his head. "Guess I'd better get some sleep, too. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day."