Chapter 2: Card shopping and turbo charged

As far as I was concerned I was randomly transported here. I had no direction, no motive and no idea of what move to make next. As I walked past a t.v store I had seen something interesting on the screen that gave me a moment of pause. It was a program/interview with Jack Atlas about his win in the Friendship Cup from the previous year, in it he talked about how his opponents were weak because they didn't trust their cards or respect the monsters that could have represented their very souls.

Honestly? I got what he was saying. After watching the yugioh anime I had knowledge of things that most people here wouldn't like Duel Spirits or the Crimson Dragon. Speaking of that, I suspect the force that brought me here was the great red serpent god, which if true is worrying. The show wrapped up the whole z-arc thing in the end (terribly) and if the dragon thought there was a threat that needed outside force to stop then I am probably meant to stop that threat.

Still though, I continued to walk. Looking at various card shops and enjoying the atmosphere of the shops. I seen kids dueling on tabletops and grown-ups enjoying casual deck building and mechanical duel disk work. Still though, there was an underlying edge to it all. You could feel a yearning for freedom from these people, and I'm gonna help them get it.

I decided to enter a small shop that looked unassuming. I did this in my last life with other small card shops in the U.S., always finding interesting things like secret rares for cheap by mostly people who don't care about the card's rarity or just think it's worthless. Most of the time though I like to just buy commons in multiple copies just for some playsets and the like. I noticed a lot of synchro card support which only made sense because this was the synchro dimension. Duh, but I saw something that really caught my interest.

Sitting behind the glass countertop was a single copy of Gravity Warrior. I thought it odd that one of the manga Yusei cards was here, but decided that having it as a part of my arsenal would be a good idea. Especially with his power up ability based on the opponent's monsters, kinda like a reverse of Junk Warrior's ability. I also found some other cards like Righty Driver and Lefty Driver, Zero Gardna, Junk Defender and Nitro Synchron with his warrior evolution.

Obviously I bought them all, with how much money I had it was no problem. I also got myself dinner at a local burger place and since it was my first time there they gave me a free small fry which was cool of them. With promises of returning for future meal plans I took my food,newly acquired cards and hope of a better future before heading back to what was now my forever home.

The next day I was up and at them with my duel disk and cards at hand. I had decided that if I wanted to move up in this winner takes all society then I had to win the next Friendship Cup, I still wish they made a better name for it like the WRGP or something. I know it will happen 2 years from now so I need to make my duel runner, the one we've all known and loved: The Yusei Go!

Now, we all know I don't have the know how to build one but luckily there are free books on it at the local library! So off I went, keen on learning how to mechanic. I entered, the little bell at the top clinking to alert another visitor has arrived at the book haven.

""Oh!""

As I walked in I had collided with a person making their way out. We both crashed on the ground hard and I hit my face on the floor.

I clutched my nose and looked at the second person I've ran into in this world. Just as I was about to apologize, my breath caught in my throat. The person had a book in their left hand, something about Synchro summoning techniques. But what made me stop was what they were wearing, a black cloak with a white mask and rose red hair in long strands sticking out of the raised hood. 'Oh my god it's Akiza!' But before I could get up to talk to her she jumped up and whipped her index finger to point at my face. "Watch where you're going! Lest you face the wrath of the Black Rose Witch!" And with that she ran off into the nearby alleyway, I chased after her but she had completely disappeared.

"Akiza…" Well this is a surprise. I really hope she isn't with that Divine bastard, he's bad news. I know Jack defeated him in the previous friendship tournament so I think that means he doesn't have his clutches on her yet. I cant believe after all she went through to recover in her life before had gone and went to waste. I have to help her at some point, I swear it.

And so, with a heavy heart I left the alley to go back to the library.

The library was actually not that helpful, all the books on D-Wheels were checked out and I'm pretty sure it was Yugo and Rin. With that being uneventful ( besides Akiza ) I had left to look around for a mechanic to special order a bike.

I had another stroll through the commons area and it looked way better than Satellite city. Less smog and less starving people, but it's still not great. There are homeless people on the streets and way too many orphans, like more than in the movie Little Orphan Annie. As I approached the outskirts I noticed more construction areas and junkyards, and in one such area I had seen a tarp covered spot with a pool of rainwater formed in the middle. I don't know why but I felt a pull to it, almost like a response to someone yelling my name but within a gentle wind that breezed by, rustling my hair.

I walked slowly to it, reaching like a kid to a toy that shines in the light, the call for something new. Tossing the tarp aside my jaw dropped as what was beneath got revealed. It was the Yusei Go, aka the world's best motorcycle. The bike had no key insertion area that I could see but I noted that it had a compartment on the front for a duel disk like mine. I very hesitantly took and lifted it off my left arm and interlocked it with the D-Wheel. Lights shined on the interface area and the computer went off. 'Autopilot Standby.'

I stared in awe at the revving engine, the purring of the red beast of a machine. Gently, as if petting a kitten, my hand landed on its left handle bar. I then slowly sat in the driver's seat and rested on it, feeling the POWER of it. I was actually on the Yusei Go, THE duel runner used to defeat all sorts of people. From villains with the power of dark immortals made of the earth to what could have been heroes of the further future turned agents of change waiting to destroy Synchros.

"And who the hell do you think you are!?" I nearly jumped out of my skin when a suddenly loud voice shouted at me. Quickly my head snapped to where I heard it from, standing there was a man with orange hair spiked upwards with a black colored headband and an 'M' shaped criminal mark on his face. This man is Crow Hogan, user of the Blackwing deck. "Crow…" I silently whispered his name. I remembered that I always enjoyed his Jack's and Yusei's friendship in the 5Ds anime, that no matt–

"HEY FOOL QUIT DAYDREAMING!" For the second time today I almost jumped out of my skin. "That D-wheel doesn't belong to you so get off," Crow stomped closer to me while slipping his duel disk on "before I make you!" I jumped off the Yusei Go after lifting up the side bar and backed off from it. Not that I'm scared of Crow but I know as I am now I can't beat him in a duel, not without Stardust Dragon at least. "Now if you know what's good for you you'll...leave…the..t-the…" Crow wouldn't stop staring at the Yusei Go, still revved up and running just as it was when I started it. "Did you start it?" He simply asked me, a stunned expression showing. "Um," I scratched the back of my head, a bead of sweat on my brow "yeah. Sorry, it was calling to me, so I just put my duel disk on the top." He swiveled his head to the duel disk compartment and looked at my duel disk inside. "You mean that this old duel disk was the key!?"

He turned back to me, a puzzled look on him. "Hey, do you know how long I tried to get this piece of junk to run?"

"It's not junk!" I snap back at him. "Just like cards every machine has a purpose! So don't call it that!" Crow was surprised by my statement but didn't yell back. "Sorry, but I need to tell you that this thing wouldn't run for any one, no matter how much we fiddled with its wires. So the fact that somebody like you got it to run, just with your duel disk alone."

He smirked, and let the shadows cover his face. And then all at once looked back at me and full on smiled with the light once again revealing his eyes. "I don't seem to have any other choice but to let you have it."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "But, I thought you wanted me to stay off?"

Crow tsked and waggled his index finger at me. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not just handing it over that easily. You can have it, but only if you can use it to beat me in a turbo duel!" He declared and stood menacingly across from me.

"A TURBO DUEL!?" That was not where I thought this was going, gonna be honest. "Yeah, you do know what that is right?" He said as he looked at me like I was insane as I shook my head up and down violently to confirm the obvious. "Yeah yeah but you trust me to use the duel runner this early on? We only just met, I thought you would want to have a standing duel or something first!"

Crow shrugged his shoulders as he grinned at me. " Sounds like someone's chicken. I can beat a chicken as easy as one two three!" He snapped his fingers on every named number. I know he was baiting me into this but for the life of me I don't know why. Crow wasn't crazy battle hungry as for as I know, without another word I turned to my new duel runner and began to roll it over next to Crow's.

"Alright! I knew you wouldn't disappoint me! So, the course is three laps around the construction site, to win you either reduce my life points to zero or beat me in this race!" I turned my head in slight surprise as I heard that alternate win condition. That kind of stuff only happened in the manga. "But good luck on that as nothing is faster than the Blackbird!" And with that we got ready to roll. "On zero! Three, two, one, GO!" He yells as we started our turbo duel.

[Duel mode on auto pilot stand by.]

We both drew five cards and headed to the first stack of steel beams. ""DUEL!""