Author's Note:
So here is Chapter 5 of "The Kingdom [be]Comes." This chapter turned out quite long too, unfortunately, even though I was certain that this one would be one of the shortest. It just seems like whenever I start writing I just cannot stop.
Okay, so in this Chapter we see more Aki and Yusei and more of their interactions versus just their stories and feelings. It was funner to write too!
So I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review!
Thank you for reading,
NineInchNailed.
"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else."
~Albert Einstein.
Yusei staggered into the bathroom and threw the soiled blue jacket into the bathtub. Then he cautiously faced the grotesque image in the mirror:
On his bicep, beneath the thin wisps of blood, was a carved-in figure of a twisted double-mouthed dragon. Its colossal spiked tail was wrapping around his upper arm like a formulaic barbed wire tattoo. The end of the dragon's tail turned face-up, near the elbow, and pointing down like an arrow towards his wrist.
This was definitely one of the more bizarre things that Yusei's experienced in his adventurous life thus far.
He gingerly tore his gaze away and studied the stained "Sky Dragon of Osiris" What in the world are you? He carefully wiped the blood off the card, put it aside, and then proceeded to wash the wound, cringing from discomfort.
Out of habit he pondered if any of the other Signers had gotten the strange mark as well. After all, strange things tended to happen to them together. They were a team in friendship and in fate. So then this wouldn't be some disturbing and random occurrence but rather something unifying and something that all of them would figure out.
But if this was his problem only... He decided to try dealing with it by himself first before telling others anything. And for a hundredth time since this incident he breathed with relief for having been living without any roommates.
Once the last trace of blood was washed off he grimaced at the finished result in the mirror. He had no idea how long this atrocity would take to heal but seeing as it already began bleeding again it'd probably be...awhile. It would likely leave a nasty scar, too. As if having a Signer birthmark on his right arm wasn't enough – he now had one more dragon mark on another!
He was almost done bandaging his arm when he heard a mobile ring in the next room. Glancing at the clock he saw that it was 9:20pm. It was still his 20th birthday. He didn't know anybody who could be calling him at this hour except maybe Crow who'd be drunkenly screaming about some club, lounge, bar, party, parking lot, [insert any arbitrary location here]. Nonetheless he hurried to get it and saw that it was an "Unknown Number" calling. His brief hesitation caused him to miss the call but then the mysterious caller began calling once more. And this time he picked up at once.
"Who is this?" he asked and felt the pulse skip a beat almost in his throat when he immediately recognized Aki Izayoi's voice on the other line. Aki told him that something horrible had happened and that he needed to come to the hospital right away. Besides her words even her voice sounded feeble and unsteady, like she was very unwell. A hollow and sick knot formed in his stomach. She didn't have to ask him twice.
"I'm on my way," he hung up and oriented back to the bathroom to get his things. There he found himself wasting precious seconds by staring at his favourite but now bloody blue jacket and realizing that he'd need to wear something else. But what? He raked his mind for any other clothing he may have owned, inconvenienced by the unavailability of his choice and habit – that jacket was always so easy to throw on and not have to care about anything. When was the last time he even went through his closet? Being a garage hermit made him lose track of days of the week, social events, shopping necessities, going out for things other than driving his bike and dueling… He knew he had to do a better job at reminding himself that he wasn't like Bruno who could inexplicably maintain such sterile existence, human necessities be damned.
Having finally made up his mind, he turned to depart when something else caught his attention and chilled him: the harmful God card lying by the sink. Whatever it was, he sensed it was dangerous to leave lying around and so he reluctantly added it to the only place he knew it'd be safest – his deck.
Finally he hurried down to the garage, having thrown on a long-forgotten black leather jacket, and was on the highway on his D-Wheel at lightning speed.
Seiroka Byoin ER was about five kilometres away. He parked in a hurry and rushed inside, finding Aki on the third floor waiting room. She wasn't by herself.
Aki sat on the rigid hospital chair with her elbows propped on her knees and holding her head. She struggled to avoid thinking about the man in the emergency room across from her, the man she might not have been able to save in time. Beside her, Kimura Mokuba sat while holding her cup of unfinished sweet coffee and going on and on about his time in Sweden and all the nostalgia that he's experienced ever since returning to Japan. She wasn't even listening anymore although she very much appreciated his presence. Being here alone would've been torture.
"Aki," a familiar voice sounded and she jumped from her dark thoughts to see Yusei standing over her. Yusei... she wanted to say but her voice was inexistent. The two of them just gaped at one another, saying nothing at all, for a few seconds until Mokuba cleared his throat and stood up.
"I'm Kimura Mokuba. You are Yusei-san, I take?" he introduced himself, and Yusei interrupted the ogling activity to nod politely to the stranger. He noticed that the man was staring at him strangely and automatically concluded that it was the usual uneasiness over the criminal marker on his face. He could almost see the usual thought processes spinning behind people's wary composures: He has a marker, he served time, what did he do, how long was he behind bars, when did he get out, does he have a job, does he carry a weapon, is he going to mug me and sell my organs for drugs? He'd learned long ago to ignore these kinds of stares. Of course it helped that almost 70% of all Satellite people had a marker. It didn't help as much that half of Neo Domino citizens still tended to think of Satellite as a recovering ghetto.
"Aki, what happened?" he directed his attention to the one who mattered and knelt beside her so their eyes were on the same level, disregarding Mokuba for now.
Aki drew in a deep breath and told him everything that happened (aside from her failed blind date, of course), from the time she met Mokuba, to when a strange man showed up pledging to avenge a petty incident from countless years ago, to how she challenged him instead, to the man had wounded himself and created a gigantic seal which trapped them inside, then how he had summoned one of the most powerful and bizarre monsters she had ever seen in her life... Finally how that monster had acquired psychic abilities and sucked energy out of her, and how she had barely won and was unable to finish the duel fast enough. Aki ended at that, deciding not to disclose the intimate details of what she had faced and experienced in La Magra either.
Frowning, Yusei got up to his feet and tried to process what he had just heard.
You're here...you came... Aki thought, permitting herself the pleasure of clinging to the speck of light his presence brought into the abyss of hopelessness. If only for a few minutes, to escape the reality...was it really that wrong? She sighed and took the cup of unfinished coffee from Mokuba, chugging the rest of it. She needed the sugar and caffeine to remain awake because the adrenaline rush was wearing off quickly and her worry for the poor man made everything even worse.
Does this have anything to do with Sky Dragon of Osiris? Yusei reasoned, trying to piece things together. Or perhaps this is a separate instance in itself, he thought, absently fixing his attention radius on the fellow Signer sipping her drink. But the time doesn't add up. Then what's going on? A coincidence? You were attacked, Aki...we weren't all there with you...and I sensed nothing. At least you're safe.
"Hey, I'm sorry for intruding...but you seem kind of familiar," the guy Aki was with brought Yusei out of his concentration. He actually had to put some effort into remembering the other man's name. Ah, yes, Kimura Mokuba. "What?" was his response and he frowned. He knew that he had never seen Mokuba before in his life, his own memory of people was pretty much impeccable.
"Yes...you look very similar to somebody I used to know...would you by any chance be related to the Mutou kin?" Mokuba resumed, not giving up, but Yusei just shook his head. He tried to suppress hostile feelings for somebody prying into his personal life, especially his ancestry – it's not like he, himself, even knew anything about it, having only known his parents and his father's name, Fudo. What he did know, however, was that this name Mutou had never previously been recalled to him in any occasion.
"Why don't you answer me this, Kimura-san," Yusei changed topics instead. "How is it that a man withholding a grudge for years against your brother, comes and conveniently finds you in this whole city and considering, especially, that according to Aki you have been away from Japan for nearly 20 years?"
He noticed momentary anger register on Mokuba's face but this man looked like he has had a lot of practice at concealing it.
"I wouldn't know, of course. The guy came out of nowhere. Besides, I don't see convenience anywhere in this – this guy threatened to kill me over a duel! It may be hard for you, Japanese teenagers, to grasp this but this game is not a universal phenomenon. I don't even have a duelling deck and I had never, not once in my life, even possessed one. Perhaps this guy has got some kind of tracker on me," Mokuba answered in a calm manner but Yusei still detected notes of frustration. Although he had difficulty visualizing a world without Duel Monsters he knew that Mokuba's point was valid. Regardless, the stranger's defensive manner irked him. He suspected that this guy, while honest, wasn't telling the whole truth.
Aki was watching the interaction unfolding in front of her with fascination. It wasn't typical of Yusei to be unfriendly to a stranger and especially to one who was older. On the other hand, it was like Yusei to be direct and try cutting through layers of bullshit and Aki appreciated this since there were some odd things surrounding Mokuba. But, unlike Yusei, Aki trusted what Mokuba was saying: she was there with him for the duel and she witnessed his genuine reactions of fear and confusion.
"Then so be it," was Yusei's response to the rant. He didn't really consider this guy to be a significant piece of the puzzle and so essentially he could disregard everything Mokuba's just said, although he'd never be so careless. Nonetheless, Aki had saved this guy's life and he'd better be more grateful to her than he had ever been to anyone...ever.
The "Surgery" sign of the room turned off and Aki gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth. Silence fell over the three of them until a doctor came out with a grave expression on his face.
"I am regretful to inform you but all of our attempts to stabilize Suzuki Tetsuo were in vain. His artery was severed which caused extreme blood loss over a long period of time. He had passed away at 10:07pm from exsanguination. I'm so sorry for your loss. His family has been informed and they are on their way now," the doctor said and handed them the man's belongings which included his blood stained duel disk and deck.
Aki let out a loud sob and broke into uncontrollable tears. I couldn't save him, I couldn't save him, I wasn't fast enough! It's...it's all my fault!
"Aki…" Yusei whispered, not knowing what to do or how to console her. Embracing her and holding her right might have been the best choice but he deemed it inappropriate, for both of their sake. Perhaps a touch on the shoulder? He also recognized how selfish he was, overthinking this way, and secretly hated himself.
Before he could make a choice one way or another and to his immediate irritation, Mokuba sat down next to Aki and placed his hand on her shoulder, saying: "There, there, Aki-san, you did the best you could. He was beyond help. Don't blame yourself." As if he'd known Aki all his life and this wasn't the first day he's met her.
Aki, still crying, shook her head to Mokuba's words, unable to articulate. No, I could have saved him and I didn't! I could have! If only I was fast enough, if only I was strong enough!
Yusei turned away from the scene and instead decided to go through the dead man's deck in search of those special cards La Magra and its Equip Magic card. He flipped through the deck two times, once quickly and the second time slowly and thorough, and he wasn't able to find any suspicious cards. He wasn't even able to find "Discord" which was a trap card that Aki said prevented her from Synchro Summoning, a card that wasn't that atypical. So the three most overpowered cards in the man's deck were conveniently missing, yeah, basically not suspicious at all.
"They're not here, Aki, the three cards combo that you said almost made you lose. Could somebody have taken them?" Yusei asked, directing attention to business, and only when Aki got up to take a look at the deck herself did he recognize how he might've come off as indifferent and even as harsh to her grief.
"No, they were here, he did summon them, and when he lost nobody could have stolen them. Is it possible for them to have disappeared into thin air?" Aki asked while zealously going through the man's deck, back and forth, and wiping away at her tears every once in awhile.
"Anything is possible," Yusei replied softly, watching her with concealed concern, and Aki nodded, knowing that he was right. The Signers' battle with the Dark Signers and god-like Godwin, the fight with the Z-ONE, after all of this, why wouldn't the most of improbable be possible?
Mokuba didn't say anything, not disagreeing with their observation. Actually, he decided to address Aki and ask if she would like a ride home now.
Noticing that Aki was about to agree to Mokuba's offer, instead of simply arguing with the guy, Yusei settled on a different approach.
"Aki I would like to talk to you about something so I think it would be better if I take you home," he insisted.
Aki looked from one to the other. Ordinarily, she would have agreed to go with Yusei in a heartbeat but today wasn't an ordinary day. Besides, as her per new resolution, she no longer wished to be dependent on him and to hold her breath at his every word. It was more than enough of that. But if he did have something to talk to her about then it was definitely more imperative to go with him. And, besides, Mokuba was still a stranger and it would be improper to burden him with taking her home.
"I'll go with Yusei but thank you for offering, Mokuba-san. Do take care of yourself. It was very nice to meet you and do enjoy your stay in Japan – hopefully it's not as eventful as today," Aki said, forcing a small smile at him and bowing her head. She felt strangely indifferent to this goodbye. She didn't know if it was because she didn't really care for him or if it was her lack of energy after La Magra's attack. Or perhaps it was a mixture of both.
Mokuba returned a smile and said his farewells, and Yusei and Aki departed, leaving him to wait for Tetsuo Suzuki's family to arrive and to pass on the man's things.
They exited the hospital and followed to the parking lot where Yusei's D-Wheel was parked, not a word uttered between them. Aki was too drained and upset over everything that happened to care about such petty things at this moment. Yusei struggled for a bit with possibilities of what he could do or say to cheer her up, a small talk of sorts, but deciding that nothing was worth bringing up he settled on staring forward and reaching a state of mind where he wasn't mindful of her walking behind him somewhere; that she was close.
Then when they approached the motorcycle Aki shrieked in sudden realization and exclaimed, "My D-Wheel!"
"What about it?" Yusei asked as he put on the helmet.
"I left it where I had the duel! I forgot about it completely!" Aki said, even more so devastated. She didn't know how she would be able to cope if her D-Wheel went missing, she held it so dear to her heart - Yusei, after all, had built it. And even though she had originally tried duel racing in order to understand Yusei better and to relate to him greater, this type of duelling had long transcended into the realm of individual and fond necessity for her: racing duels for her were now absolutely incredible, almost metaphysical.
"Then let's go get it," Yusei replied, throwing her an extra helmet.
Aki caught it. It was almost like deja vu - except that this time she'd have a proper place to sit after Yusei had recently and inexplicably made the smallest of adjustments which permitted possible extra seating on his bike.
She put on the helmet and carefully straddled the seat behind him, trying to calm her sudden nerves. She's rarely been in such close proximity to him. The most comparable time was when he hugged her on her birthday, and that didn't really go that well. And right now she had to be the one to hug him, basically.
Yusei started the engine. "Ready?" he glanced at her over his shoulder. Aki nodded, looking down. She was still undecided with where she should place her hands. Just touching him seemed like an impossibly daunting task. Obviously his waist was the logical choice and he was waiting for her so they could get going. Hesitantly and cautiously, she lightly placed her hands just below his ribs.
Immediately, Yusei pulled her hands to interlock tighter around his waist, inadvertently yanking her forward and she smacked her face into the space between his shoulder blades. "You have to hold on, Aki," he stressed, and he meant it.
Before she had a chance to even utter a sound (mortified by how inelegant she'd been), he revved up the engine and they sped off. Now, Yusei felt her tightly clutch onto him from the abrupt speed. Unbeknownst to her he grinned. The hottest part was, of course, how closely she pressed herself against him. Well no, the actual hottest part was feeling her voluptuous breasts against his back. That's why Yusei sped at almost 40 over limit. No, it wasn't because he was hurrying to get to her D-Wheel, no, not really.
Aki didn't think that she ever went this fast on a motorcycle. She grabbed onto Yusei like her life depended on it and, at this speed, it seemed like it just might. I'm going to die today, that's for certain, she thought and as Yusei took a particularly sharp turn she gasped and closed her eyes, grabbing onto him so hard that she might have been crushing his ribs. She couldn't deny to herself, however, the intense exhilaration that she was getting right now. She could barely breathe and she couldn't tell if it was because of the speed or because they were so close. With her hands clasped on his hard stomach (abs, he's got actual abs) she knew her answer – it definitely wasn't just the speed. She pressed her face against his back and could breathe in the faint smell of his cologne. She could probably get off right then and there.
Damn him, damn him! she thought angrily.
Thankfully (or not?) they had already reached the harbour and the D-Wheel slowed down to a stop. Aki rushed to get off the motorbike, handing him the helmet and hiding her flushed face as she turned away to fix her hair.
"Look!" Yusei said as he removed his own helmet (and his hair was as flawless as ever, how?) and pointed in the direction of her D-Wheel. Aki saw that it was still parked where she left it except that now it was surrounded by five young teenagers, aged anywhere between twelve to fourteen. One of them was sitting on top of her D-Wheel and the other had a portable tool kit with him with which he was trying to start up the engine.
"Hey!" Aki shouted, running up towards them. "This is mine!"
The youth stared at her, first startled as if they expected her to be New Domino's Security, and then they laughed her off. "How do we know that this is yours? It doesn't have your name on it, does it?" asked the boy who was sitting atop of her D-Wheel. He appeared to be the gang's leader.
Yusei was watching the situation from afar with amusement. He wanted to see how she's deal with this.
"Maybe it's mine because I have keys to it," Aki said, holding up her keys for them to see, "Now, seriously, scram!"
The boys just laughed her off completely once again and resumed their business of trying to hotwire the motorbike without the owner's keys as if she wasn't there standing over them.
Aki was too drained to do this. She just wanted to go home and go to sleep and this was a very frustrating nuisance on the way of her plan. So she turned and looked at Yusei, her eyes pleading. If the boys weren't going to listen to her then they would definitely listen to somebody like Yusei.
Yusei caught the pouting look and rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, getting up from his D-Wheel and making his way towards the troublemakers.
"Guys, if a nice girl here says that it's her D-Wheel and presents valid evidence to claim it then you should probably give it back. She might call Security, you know?" he said, folding his arms across his chest as he stood next to Aki. He was quite amused although his tone of voice was serious as usual.
It seemed that the little gang had noticed him for the first time and a few of them gasped, as he guessed, recognizing him.
"It's Fudo Yusei, it's the King!" the smallest of the boys squeaked and all the other boys stared at him with astonishment, murmuring, "Wow..." and quickly jumping away from the D-Wheel, their mouths wide open.
Only their "leader" seemed unimpressed and that was probably because he was trying to keep up his image. He raised up his chin, trying to look proud and indifferent, and continued sitting on Aki's motorbike as he said, "No big deal, I say: if you are the King then you wouldn't mind duelling me for this D-Wheel. Otherwise, we're keeping it!"
Yusei appraised the leader. He seemed to be the oldest in the group, probably closer to the age of 14. He seemed brave and proud but these two qualities also had the capability of bordering on impulsive and cocky.
"I will gladly duel you, actually. But today I'm going to have to have to take a raincheck: it's been a long day and we've got to get going home," Yusei replied, moving closer to the D-Wheel, and motioning for Aki to come take her bike when suddenly the young man snarled at him in retaliation. Yusei stepped back, unpleasantly startled.
"I see how it is. The King is afraid of a challenge. Are you chicken?" the boy shouted and jumped off the D-Wheel, grabbing a screwdriver off the ground and smashing it into the bike's tail lights.
At that point Aki didn't even have enough energy to be surprised. She just threw her arms up, hopelessly. Seriously? Just how much more dramatic could this get? This day was utterly exhausting and it felt like it would never be over. Everything that could have happened in one day happened and more.
I don't have time for this, Yusei thought, now aggravated. He couldn't believe what this kid just did – apparently hurting others to get his way was something that left him completely unhinged. It was something that he probably did quite casually and quite often. Yusei looked at Aki, noting her bleak expression, and he knew that there was only one way to deal with this.
"As you wish then," he complied coldly with the boy's conditions, walked back to his D-Wheel and picked up the duel-disk, placing it on his arm. Inconspicuously, he noticed some blood stains on the ground. This was probably the spot where Aki fought the deceased man. He decided not to bring any attention to this fact; they were barely noticeable during night time anyway.
Meanwhile, the boy smirked and ushered for one of his friends to bring him his duel disk as well. "Takashi, what are you doing..." mumbled the boy's friend as he handed him the duel disk but Takashi told him to shut up, snapping the device onto his arm and shouting, "Duel!"
"Duel," Yusei affirmed, shaking his head. He was genuinely disappointed.
The boy's friends seemed to be less daring and assertive than him. They all stepped far back away from their leader and from the D-Wheel. They definitely weren't up for a hopeless challenge against the King, a challenge for something that wasn't theirs to begin with.
"I'll take the first turn, draw!" the boy proclaimed and drew a card.
[Takashi]
[Beginning of Turn One: 0 Monsters; 0 Cards on Field; 6 Cards in hand; LP4000]
"I summon Ronintoadin in Defence Mode!" Takashi shouted, placing the card horizontally onto the duel disk and a large bluish frog appeared with 100 attack and 2000 defence points.
"I also place one card face down on the field and end my turn!" the boy declared and stood there, grinning.
[Takashi]
[End of Turn One: Ronintoadin (Lvl.2) ATK100/DEF2000; 1 Face down Card; 4 Cards in hand; LP4000]
"Good job, Takashi, you've got a really strong monster out on the field already!" exclaimed one of his friends and the rest of the gang quietly cheered him on.
"My turn," Yusei said indifferently and drew a card.
[Yusei Fudo]
[Beginning of Turn One: 0 Monsters; 0 Cards on Field; 6 Cards in hand; LP4000]
Yusei studied his draw and saw that his cards were listening to him, as always. This duel would be over as soon as it started. His eyes trailed off to look at Aki standing off on a side, looking miserable, and he knew that he was doing this for her only.
"When my opponent has monsters on his field and I have none then I can Special Summon Level Warrior from my hand. Level Warrior, appear in Attack mode," Yusei said and a monster in appearance of an '80s TV superhero appeared, its attack points at 300 and defence points at 600, "Level Tuner is generally a level 3 monster but if it's Special Summoned this way then its level increases to 4."
The boy named Takashi laughed on his side of the field, "You're summoning that weak puny monster against Ronintoadin? What a joke!"
"Then I Normal Summon a tuner Hyper Synchron in Attack mode," Yusei continued, completely unfazed by the laughing
Hyper Synchron, a blue cybernetic monster with attack of 1600 and defence of 800 points, appeared on the field next to Level Warrior.
"And now, I tune my level four Hyper Synchron to my level four Level Warrior to Synchro Summon my Stardust Dragon!" Yusei said and slapped the silver Synchro card onto his duel disk.
"Clustering hopes will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!" Yusei chanted, commanding his faithful Dragon to appear. And when the dragon took its immense silver and shining form, its attack of 2500 points and defence of 2000 points showed up.
Aki smiled as a gorgeous white dragon lit up the night sky. She predicted that this would be over very soon.
At the same time, Takashi was looking quite uncomfortable and worried. He kept looking down at the face down trap card he placed on his field, apparently unable to apply it to the current situation.
"When Hyper Synchron is used as a tuner material to Synchro Summon a Dragon monster, the summoned Synchro Dragon has its attack increased by 800 points. But that's not all," Yusei continued while Stardust's attack power raised from 2500 to 3300, "I will play this Magic card, Card Rotator – by discarding one card from my hand I can change positions of all monsters on my opponent's side of the field. So your Ronintoadin is now in Attack mode."
Yusei casually removed one card from his hand, sending it to the Graveyard while the monster on Takashi's field forcibly moved into Attack mode, revealing its inferior 100 attack points versus the 2000 defence points it had previously.
Takashi was making whimpering noises at this point but Yusei didn't really feel bad. He wasn't in a good mood and he wasn't playing around. He wasn't enjoying this duel in the least.
"Now, Stardust Dragon, attack his Ronintoadin," Yusei said and watched as the Stardust Dragon obliterated the weak monster, sending the boy's Life Points dropping down to 800.
"Lastly, I place one card face down on the field and end my turn," Yusei concluded, placing down a hidden card and waiting.
[Yusei Fudo]
[End of Turn One: Stardust Dragon (Lvl.8) ATK2500/DEF2000; 1 Face down Card; 1 Card in hand; LP4000]
Takashi was biting his nails nervously while staring down at his cards and then up at Yusei's dragon and then back down at his cards. His friends were silent and their expressions varied from gloomy to awed.
"Okay, here goes..." the gang's leader took in a deep breath, "Draw!"
[Takashi]
[Beginning of Turn Two: 0 Monsters on the Field; 1 Face down Card; 5 Cards in hand; LP800]
The boy looked at the card he just drew and his face lighted up with a wide grin.
"Okay, you might be in the lead now, Fudo Yusei, but not for long!" Takashi exclaimed and showed the card he just drew to everyone, "I will now play my Magic card, Dark Core! By discarding one card from my hand I can remove from play one face-up monster from the field. So I choose your Stardust Dragon, Yusei!"
Yusei watched, calmly, as his Stardust Dragon disintegrated.
Aki wondered why Yusei didn't just use Stardust's effect to release Stardust and thus destroy Takashi's Magic card. This way he would be able to Special Summon Stardust back on the field at the end of Takashi's End Phase. She found out exactly why he did this in a moment.
"And now I-" Takashi started saying but he was abruptly interrupted by Yusei's voice.
"Not so fast," Yusei said, flipping the face down card on the field up, "I activate my Trap card, Cosmic Blast. When a Dragon-Type Synchro monster under my control is removed from field, Cosmic Blast inflicts damage to my opponent equal to that dragon's attack power. My Stardust Dragon's attack was 3300 points when it was destroyed, so you receive 3300 points of direct damage. You have doomed yourself."
"No!" Takashi yelled out and covered his head, shrieking when 3300 points of damage were inflicted upon him with a Cosmic Blast from solid vision. His Life Points went from 800 to zero. He wasn't even able to finish his 2nd turn.
[Winner: Yusei Fudo, LP4000]
The boy fell to his knees and began hitting the ground with his fists. Tears of embarrassment stung at his eyes as he mumbled over and over again: "You cheated! You cheated! You can't do all those things in one turn! You cheated!"
Yusei walked past him, saying absolutely nothing, and silently motioned for Aki to come and get her bike. The other boys looked completely excited and amazed, apparently not caring in the least that their friend just got completely obliterated. Evidently, watching a King of Games do what a King is best at was more than worth it for them.
Yusei wasn't an asshole, he really wasn't. Ordinarily, making children cry was not on his priority list and it was usually something that he readily fought against. But, once again, today wasn't an ordinary day. This boy needed to be taught a lesson in the only way that he could understand. Even when Yusei and his friends lived in Satellite's slums as kids they never, ever, stole from others, and especially not when somebody came forward to claim his or her rightful property. They collected unwanted scraps and it would never have occurred for them to take from others or to do things just to hurt others. So had this boy only accepted Yusei's raincheck then they would have definitely had a fun and an easygoing duel tomorrow or whenever. But no, he wanted to do it his own way and, in the process, damaged Aki's D-Wheel. So this was karma, that's all it was.
"Find a new hobby," Yusei said to the rest of the gang and then turned his whole attention on Aki, "Are you going to be okay to drive?"
Aki nodded, "I'll be fine, I just really need to get home."
"I'll follow you," he responded and soon the two of them sped off away from the harbour.
As she was driving on the darkened streets of Neo Domino, Aki could hear Yusei's D-Wheel following right behind her and she found the whole situation kind of sexy. He was watching over her and he was following her home to make sure she would get home safe. Aki wished that she wasn't so tired because then she would definitely have appreciated this more if she was her usual self. She probably would have challenged him to a race and tempted him into playing cat and mouse. Now that, that, would have been really sexy. But not today.
They finally got to her mansion and in silence walked to her door.
Yusei felt charged tension between them and was feeling increasingly nervous with each step.
Aki felt like this situation had all the prerequisites to turn out kind of uncomfortable but she was way too sleepy and upset to care at this point.
Aki opened her front door, picked up her mewing kitten Yami, and turned to face Yusei. She was about to wish him good night and thank him for coming so promptly per her request and getting her home when she remembered something.
"Yusei...you mentioned at the hospital that you needed to talk to me. What is it?" she asked, cradling the black kitten to her chest.
He was admittedly taken off guard, having completely forgotten about it. But at the same time, he wasn't really making it up when he had something to ask her.
"You said earlier on that you were at the harbour when you met Mokuba-san and when you were challenged to a duel. But..." he paused, reaching to pet Yami and hearing it purr. He was also now acutely aware that his hand was dangerously close to her cleavage. "...I wonder… what were you doing at the harbour to begin with? You left all of us earlier on and it seemed like you had some urgent and important business. Is everything okay?"
Aki felt her heart yank in her chest. Why do you have to be so perceptible, Yusei? she thought, painfully. He was now staring at her directly and she hesitated, looking away from his piercing stare. She didn't know what would be a worse: lying to him for the first time in her life or actually telling him the truth.
"Why?" she asked, avoiding his eyes. Obviously avoiding the question was the best solution.
A harrowing unpleasant feeling began forming in Yusei's heart. What did she not want to tell him?
"Because..." he started and broke off. What was he doing? And what could he possibly say right now? It was weird as it is, mentioning to her that apparently it upset him that she had left all of them to go somewhere else. He wondered if she was feeling creeped out. He wondered if this was the wrong thing to bring up. And he wondered if they were really that good of friends to begin with if she wasn't going to tell him the truth.
"Because...it was my birthday, Aki," he finished quietly, nervously watching for her reaction. He then decided to minimize the impact of those words by adding, "And I wished for all my friends to be there."
She wasn't saying anything and every second of her silence felt to him like hours.
Aki, on the other hand, was feeling mortified. She felt so guilty. Yusei was right of course: she owed it to him as a friend and after all that they've been through to at least stay with him and their friends for this occasion. She shouldn't have made a date on the same day. At the same time, she began feeling angry. He needed all his friends to be there? Did anything at all made her different for him from his others? Or did he just want a simple collective effort from everybody? Well, screw him then!
"I just had to do something, Yusei. The timing was unfortunate," she finally replied, looking up and inviting him to read her with those clairvoyant eyes of his if he wanted to. Because she wasn't lying...she just wasn't really saying anything. That was the only thing that the compromise between her guilt and anger allowed her to say.
Yusei studied her, thinking. Then he slowly withdrew his hand from the kitten.
"Aki, were you seeing somebody?" he asked and Aki flinched, her eyes widening.
That was all the reaction he needed. He lost his breath.
So...she was. It didn't matter who it was. It honestly didn't matter. It's like suddenly nothing else matters at all, nothing else exists but this sharp pain in your chest.
Yusei swallowed and looked away. It was such a strange sensation: the feeling of your throat closing up.
Aki's heart raced and she could hear its thumping in her ears. The thumping was so loud that she wondered if even he was able to hear it. Sleep? Right now she couldn't even remember what sleep was.
"And what of it, Yusei? What if I was? So what, tell me?" she prompted him, her voice nearly breaking. If you have something to say, Yusei, then say it right now. Please, just say it. Why was he asking? Did he care? Was he bothered by this? Why couldn't he just tell her?
Nothing, I don't care. I feel nothing. I must force myself to feel nothing. I can do it. I've done it before. If I can't be happy for her, then I must stop feeling anything else. "Nothing," he smiled and graced her with another quick look. It was only polite to look at someone when you spoke to them. He needed to show her that this didn't bother him and briefly he was able to put up this façade. "There is nothing of it, Aki. I was just wondering. That's good," he added quickly and stared at something on the side again, his gaze empty. "Good for you." So why can't I stop from feeling now? Why did I have to go on ahead and ask if I didn't want to know?
Aki felt like she got kicked in the stomach. Nothing. Just wondering. Good for you. Her cruel mind was repeating those poisonous words over and over again, as if in a loop.
Yusei passed his hand through his hair and turned away. "It's late. Tomorrow, why don't you stop by and I'll fix the busted taillight? It won't take long."
"Ah...yeah, okay. Thank you for coming today, Yusei," she managed, trying to smile. Smile. Just smile. Why can't you smile. Her end result was some kind of a pathetic and trembling grimace, but he wasn't even looking at her to notice it, he was walking to his D-Wheel already.
"Good night," he dropped his last words and drove out of the driveway and onto the main road. He couldn't look back, he just couldn't.
"Happy birthday, Yusei..." Aki whispered and slowly closed the door.
Geez, this was one long day – it went on for 5 chapters (well, excluding 99% of Chapter 1 and 90% of Chapter 3)!
So for next chapter: will we find out if Aki and Yusei patch up their friendship? Will we find out what was the point of that small duel in the middle of the chapter (and if it's more than just making Yusei look badass and mean to kids)? Will Yusei figure out what's up with his cool new tattoo? Will another boring duel happen? WHO IS ERIC CARTMAN'S FATHER?
Stay tuned and you (might) find out!