#novashipping

...

She wasn’t there when they first met Kiryu. That first time, it had all been wary introductions and figuring each other out. First impressions meant a lot, and if they hadn’t liked the look of him, then they might never have met again.

But they’d met up again a few days later, and not long after Kiryu had explained his true goal of uniting Satellite, did a new person appear.

At first, they were on edge – was this a new duellist? Could they be trusted? Were they a threat? Whoever it was, they’d overheard the plans.

But Kiryu didn’t bat an eyelid, just glancing over casually to where the newcomer – a girl, one with dark hair and glasses – had come in.

“Yo, Carly! These are the guys I was telling you about! Jack, Yuusei, Crow, this is Carly – we’ve known each other a while now!”

She could be trusted, then. And by the way she was excitedly saying hello, and trying to get to know them all, not a bad person to know, either.

It ended up that she wouldn’t be a part of the team, however. She’d laughed off the suggestion when Jack had brought it up, saying that the others were the ones who were the amazing duellists, not her, even if Kiryu did say that her duel wasn’t too shabby – something the other duellists took to be the high compliment it was.

The first time they took out another team was a thrill ride, full of each of them wondering if they were being completely mental, wondering if something would go wrong and they’d have to find new duel disks.

The idea of the duel cuffs had been Kiryu’s, and it was only fitting in some ways – that their most risky part of the entire operation was founded by the guy who thought that all they needed was to break through everyone’s defences and attacks with sheer guts and determination.

The four of them returned to base elated that night, after a series of intense duels, adrenaline running high, and Crow had, from somewhere, managed to filch some drinks that were harder than what they’d been used to from growing up, and more than they’d be allowed in most places.

None of them were really old enough, but none of them really cared – Yuusei declined at first, but even he had a bit, just as a celebratory drink between friends. The five of them spent hours talking over strategies, reminiscing over each individual duel, and looking to the future, which now didn’t seem so dark or so nerve-wracking. They could – and they would – do this.

Carly, who they’d gotten to know over the course of the week and a half leading up to the first real fight, had flung herself onto Kiryu in the midst of it all. Which had led to a fair bit more than hugging, making the other members of the team look away, made Jack jokingly try to cover Crow’s eyes, and Crow, unimpressed by any of their antics – or the idea that he was really that innocent at thirteen – tell them to get a room already.

None of them had actually expected the two to take him up on the suggestion.

Or that they wouldn’t see their team leader and his female friend until the next morning, both of them looking a bit ruffled, more than a bit embarrassed for a while, before Kiryu started to turn the embarrassment into a weapon to turn against his younger friends.

It wasn’t long before they were planning the next strike, which went well, and the next, and at that point, it seemed like they were on a roll. Celebrations weren’t as much of a massive deal now, since they were far more confident that they’d go in to win, and they were already gaining a reputation.

It was just before the fourth that Carly fell sick.

At first, they thought that she must have eaten something bad – it wasn’t unheard of, for someone to get poisoned by out of date or badly made food – but they’d all been eating the same things, and they knew she didn’t have any allergies, so that couldn’t be it either.

She was better by the time they had to go, however, so she reassured them and smilingly pushed Kiryu away when he tried to take her temperature, a slight blush rising to her cheeks as he put his face against her forehead. She’d be fine, she said – it was probably just a fluke, and if they were going to do this like they’d planned, they’d better leave soon.

So, leave they had.

They marked the fourth sector in black the next morning upon their arrival, but were dismayed to find that Carly had been throwing up again.

Regardless of her protests, their next strikes were put on hold, none of the team wanting to sacrifice their friend – and Kiryu’s more than friend – for the sake of winning their duels. Satellite had waited for them this long. It could take a little while longer.

After another few days of Carly throwing up at odd times, the suggestion was made to take her to Martha, to see if there was anything she could do, any light she could shed on the matter.

The trip there was spent in tense, shaky conversation, not quite the usual banter they were used to from each other – but being unsure of what exactly was wrong with a close friend did that to the dynamic.

Carly herself felt guilty that she was the one causing them to be upset, no matter how often the others told her that her wellbeing and happiness were just as important.

But they all trusted Martha, because if she hadn’t brought them up, then three of the five of them had known her for a damn long time, and it wasn’t often that people like her appeared in Satellite, who just wanted to help people, and had the means to at least try.

So they answered as truthfully as they could to all the questions she gave them – what had she been eating? Was she well other than this? Feeling tired, feverish, dizzy? How long did the bouts of sickness last? Had she been eating well? How long had it been going on for?

After a while, she seemed to have had enough and cut off one of Crow’s answers with a grim wave of her hand, and with deep frown on her face she took Carly aside into another room as they all watched and waited with baited breath.

They weren’t expecting to hear a startled and dismayed shriek come from the other room, something that caused Kiryu to get up out of his seat and he was halfway across the room before the door opened again anyway.

Martha came back in to them, still looking grim and serious, more so than they were used to seeing her since they’d brought Crow back to her with a broken arm once.

Her eyes drifted over them, and for some reason as she passed them the younger boys felt relieved that her gaze hadn’t settled on them.

“Hm… Kiryu Kyousuke-kun, is it?”

“Eh?”

“Any good with kids? Other than my boys. I mean children.”

The other three there were more focused on trying to figure out what she meant and figuring out Kiryu’s many strange expressions at the question to notice Carly in the background, who, while she had been looking rather pale now, was gaining quite the red in her face.

“Ah? I mean. Not really – I’ve never-”

Martha crossed her arms, tapping one finger contemplatively against her arm.

“Mnn. Well, if I were you, Kiryu-kun, I’d get good, and fast. Carly-chan here says she hasn’t been with anyone else – I should hope my boys aren’t fool enough for that kind of thing – so it only stands to reason that you’re the one who’s going to become a father, young man.”

The whole room, apart from Carly herself with her eyes to the floor, turned to look at Kiryu. Kiryu, who’d gone white, staring right at Martha, and then at Carly and back again.

Kiryu swallowed. Took a step back, hand reaching behind him for the seat he’d left behind, and sat down, heavily.

That wasn’t anything he’d planned for.

Then again, that was sort of the point. None of them had.

And now, in Satellite, where things like protection weren’t always easy to find – well, family planning and all that was a thing of the City, not the slums. Why waste skilled doctors on the people who weren’t worth anything, right?

Except, because of that…

He snuck a glance at Carly, wondering what she thought of the whole situation. After all, he was the one who’d got her into it. Although, she’d been just as involved at the time-

He stopped himself from letting those thoughts take him too far. This wasn’t the time or place. Besides, his head felt odd, kind of fuzzed.

“Kiryu – oi, Kiryu, breathe, dammit!”

...

In a world full of harsh lines, dirty floors, sharp words and laughter, a hard reality, she was… soft.

That was the first word that came to mind. Not that he would have said so to anyone, either then or afterwards. Although he might, perhaps, have said it to her, if he remembered, and if it came up.

There was nothing of vengeance about her the way there was with the others. No determined scheme. It chafed, but if he looked, actually looked at himself, he’d realise that it was because he was jealous, and wished he could have some of that same lack.

She cried, too. The sounds drew his attention, and he hated them. Hated them because they were soft, and soft meant weak. He was stronger than that. He’d learned not to cry, learned not to show he was affected by the words and violence of the world. Life messed you up, chewed with you and then spat you out a changed person, and he knew that.

She didn’t, though, that or this was just so much more than she was capable of coping with.

When he realised it was the latter, that she knew the world was cruel and just preferred not to focus on that as much as she could, when she looked at him and saw a person, he found himself sitting beside her the next time he heard those soft sobs coming from behind her door.

She looked up, and there it was again. Soft eyes, out of focus from tears, looking at him like she was some kind of beaten dog, or cat.

He huffed and just drew his knees up to his chest, and pointedly stared at the wall.

When she first hurt herself due to falling off of her bike, she winced and touched the areas gingerly, no matter that they were both already dead. Limped when her legs ached.

Soft, soft. She should be stronger than that!

And yet when she showed that it was just inexperience when she kept going, he saw it as her strength. She got back up, kept on going, kept pace with him.

When he helped her back up, she was soft. Soft like the puffed out feathers of the small birds that he’d seen from time to time, trying to pretend they were giants.

When they got back into the compound later that night, Misty would find them sitting at a table in a room they'd taken over as a sort of communal area, a chessboard between them and plate of sushi to one side.

They didn't exactly need to eat, really, but it was a habit, and not one any of them had ever felt like kicking.  Their bodies still digested the food, even if it did them no good.  Taste was also an important factor.  Why give up everything simply because you're dead?

They hadn't noticed her staring for the longest time.  Carly had been thinking about her next move, and Kiryu himself had been watching her.  Then the prickling at the base of his neck alerted him that they weren't alone, and he turned around - Misty had simply given them a long look, and found herself a seat in which to at first go through her deck yet again, and then read.

Finally, she moved her piece - only for him to move in reaction, taking out one of her other, more powerful pieces.

"E-ehh?  How-?"

Kiryu grabbed a piece of sushi, and she scrunched up her nose at the topping in a way that had him grinning.

"You focus too much on luck and chance," he said, waving the food around as he gestured with the same hand.  "You should be thinking of the long game.  See?"

He pointed out the pieces, and the way that he'd played them, explained that he'd set it up so that she'd be baited into going after that one piece, giving him an opening to her king.  She pouted in response, but didn't hold it against him, instead interested in what he was saying.

"It's like with this," he said with a now full mouth.  He chewed, and swallowed.  "I could've just left things between me and Yuusei until everything was ready.  But Yuusei's a good duelist, I'll give him that much.  But now?  Ha!  Fear does things to you, and he's afraid of me.  He won't be able to think straight at all!"

He said it all as though it were mere dinner conversation to be mentioned in passing, and none of the others found anything strange in it at all.  Indeed, Carly was nodding.

"Another game!"

The pieces were put back into their original places, and the game began anew.

The next day, he led her on circuits, executing turns and bends that weren't as hard as she'd have to deal with later on while using her geoglyph as a track, but were good practice all the same.  They came back in to rest still talking about posture, balance, and the many different ways that riding would be different while duelling.

He was stopped by Rudger while going back to his room to change his shirt.

"I trust that the lessons are paying off."

Kiryu crossed his arms.  "She's a fast learner."

"She'd better be.  We have three days.  You had better use them wisely."  Almost in response to the younger man's rolled eyes, Rudger narrowed his.  "And how to ride a D-Wheel had better be the only thing you are teaching her, Kiryu-kun.  We don't have time for distractions."

He couldn't help but laugh - was the man really saying what he thought he was saying?  Because even if he'd wanted (and he had to admit, he was tempted), there'd never been any opportunity.  And she'd never shown herself to be exactly open to the idea!

He left, the tone of amusement and ever so slight disbelief satisfying Rudger enough to let him.

...

She shouldn't have been surprised that life went on far easier once she'd allowed herself to commit to the idea.  Gone was the worry of what they might think, because Jack - and the others - only really wanted what was best for her, and because she'd said that she wanted this, that she didn't feel like it was because she should or anything, they were happy for her.

Of course, it only invited in further worries; how would she be able to afford everything?  A baby was expensive!  She'd need... oh, so much!

At the very least, she didn't have to worry about all that straight away, and wouldn't have to for another several months.

Still, it was a heady feeling, and one that pulled her back and forth between feeling like it was the best decision she could possibly have made and looking forward to the consequences, and then having sudden fears over whether there would be any complications, and would she be able to do well enough financially, and...

It was this that made her lose focus and almost bump into a familiar face while out shopping, although once she'd apologised she blinked, not having recognised him in the different environment.

"Y-Yuusei?"

Yuusei, also somewhat strangely dressed in a cold weather coat instead of his normal jacket, blinked at her.

"Aa.  We needed some things, and since there was a job that needed urgent attention..."

He'd been saddled with shopping duty, she finished in her head, wincing slightly in sympathy.  She could see it now - and Jack would cause either a commotion just by going out even this long after Fortune Cup, or he'd not do the shopping properly... she shook her head, attempting to hide a smile.

Yuusei, of course, would have been less likely to attract attention as well, given his lack of bright red hair and his single marker as opposed to Crow's three.  Discrimination might be going down - and Carly was proud to say that she might have had a hand in that, writing several articles on the nature of Satellite, on Jack albeit with his permission, and on the events of the Signer war, putting them together in such a way that people would accept - but while people could be told to think in a certain way, it would take time for it to fully sink in.

Even now, there were some who noted a hint of orange on Yuusei's face, not being able to see much of the rest of him due to the bulky coat and the warm hat, and assumed, glancing his way warily every so often and watching their things.

It'd take time, that's all.  Time.

Still.  Things weren't bad.

"So," Yuusei was saying, "you're doing all right?"

She nodded, with a little of her usual enthusiasm that was only slightly dampened by the damp cold and her own distracting thoughts.

"Yeah!  It's, it's kind of fun, sometimes!  I mean, not all the time, just, it can be exciting, right?"

She hadn't meant it to sound like a worried question at the end there, but somehow that's how she feared it had turned out.  But Yuusei just nodded.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, if it's what you really want," he said, smiling.

"Mn!  And, ah... you?  How's the...?"

"Aa.  Not much luck, I'm afraid.  We've got a direction, but that's not much help.  Given there aren't as many people living out that way."

She sighed, and watched as he deliberated between one brand of instant coffee and another before making a decision and putting the jar into the basket along with the rest.

"But it's something at least, right?"

"Exactly."

She shifted her grip on her basket, full of ingredients and fast foods alike, to stop it from digging into her arm when it started to get heavy.

"Hn... ne, Yuusei?"

"Mn?"

He rounded the corner down an aisle that she'd already been down, but she found herself following anyway.

"Could you... I mean... tell me about him?  Just a bit?"

Despite herself, she found herself blushing, embarrassed that she had to ask, and unsure what he thought of the request.  He turned to her with an unreadable expression which cleared a few moments later.

"Ah, of course... Jack mentioned that he'd been there with you during our first duel, but you must have forgotten that as well.  Forgive me."

"No, no!  It's all right!  Just-" 

Why did she think she could hear the sound of something loud, overpowering even the conversations around her?  A beating sound...

Aurgh.  Gone.  Always, always gone.  She was used to it by now, but that didn't make it any less frustrating.

"I'd like to remember. And, sometimes it's like it's so close, but... I can never get it..."

"...Aa.  I think I get what you mean..."  He trailed off, looking into the distance and past the cans of soup in front of him.  "When we first met him... looking back, I think the best word to describe him would be 'driven'."

"Ah, really?"

She gripped her basket a little tighter.

"Mm.  Not in a bad way, though.  Not then.  He simply wasn't satisfied with what we had, and he had this drive to find a way to make what we did have, well," he smiled, as though finding something ironic, "satisfying."

Something about what he was saying struck her - as though she should recognise something, but it was just out of reach.

"Then... what went wrong?  I-if you don't mind-!"

"It's fine."  He shook his head, however, not meeting her eyes.  "Even now, I sometimes wonder how it happened.  But in the end... I think he went too far.  Became paranoid, and went places that I... none of us... could follow.  But I'd like to think," he continued with a more hopeful tone, "that even at his darkest time, he was still the same person I once knew underneath it all."

"Ah, right..."

Of course they had to hope.  For Yuusei, he'd been a close friend back then, from what she'd gathered, and for her... well.  The results spoke for themselves.  She'd go through with it regardless, but... it was daunting, not knowing. Knowing that she had the answers, but couldn't get at them.

"Mm... it's difficult to say, what he'd be like now."

"Mn, you mean because of the Dark Signer thing, right?"

Some might think her odd for being able to talk about it so lightly, but if she couldn't remember, all she felt was a slight bit of guilt at the realisation that maybe she shouldn't, and sometimes at the winces that the others would attempt to hide.

"I suppose."

Of course... of course there would be other things.

She sighed, and attempted to veer conversation back toward more cheerful topics.

...

Another sunset down, another duel won.

It was almost getting boring, the ease with which he took down everyone Marco's group sent out.  At first, they'd had their bravado, and the idea that someone who wanted to die by coming to this town and signing up willingly couldn't possibly last too long.  But now?

She'd noticed some of them begin to shake when they were told it would be them sent out that evening.  They'd started to see it less as a mark of Marco's trust in them, and more as a sign that their leader was displeased.  Instead of favouring them, it was their final warning.  Their death row.  Fail me now, it said, and you die.

Invariably, they all died.  Or as good as, anyway.

If it weren't for how he was playing for the other team, Barbara would have long since attempted to cosy up to the boy, because after all, to be able to stay alive so long when everything about him screamed that he was a dead man walking, now that was strength!  But that very thing was also what put her off - there was no passion, no interest, and when he looked at her, it was more like he was either looking past her, or even through her.  Even if he had been working for Marco's group, that would have been no fun at all.

She watched, as they left, eyes narrowing.

Boring.  It really was getting sort of boring, wasn't it?

Which was why she'd sent suggestions into the air when he was over in the shop the other day.  Surely someone had to know a way to stop that handless combo... right?

It wasn't her fault if he'd left the morning after.  Certainly not her fault if he was suddenly reminded of how weak he was in contrast to just one punk kid from Satellite.

Oh, she'd heard of him.  Him and his team.  It was cute, in a way, she'd allow that.  But she didn't like 'cute'.  She liked strong.

And so she tried to stifle her giggles as she thought of how Lotten would come back, maybe teach them how to get rid of the white-haired cockroach they were starting to call 'Shinigami'.

...Except, that'd been days ago.  And they'd heard no word from him yet, and Barbara, if nothing else, never liked going in without some sort of backup plan of her own.  Because seriously, allowing all of her gambles to ride on one person?  Regardless of strength, that would be just plain foolish.

So... what now?  Attempt to use those two kids he'd picked up against him?  Oh, she knew about them.  They might try and be quiet, but not much could escape her eyes in this town.  But if she did use them, then what?  He might decide he'd had enough of being a dead man and fight back properly, which would only make him stronger yet, and harder to take down.

So if they couldn't use his only true weakness against him, and any of his old enemies that they'd tried to pit off against him gained no reaction at all, then where did that leave them...

Barbara clapped happily to herself, a small smirk betraying her intentions.

If an old foe won't work, then how about an old friend...

Oh, that might work...  she'd keep the idea in mind.  Just in case.

For now, she locked the door after seeing her last customer out - flowers for a family shrine, how sweet - and went upstairs to relax in a nice, hot bath, allowing herself to forget all about the problem of one undying duelist for just a while more.

...

"AH- OI, YUUSEI - YUUSEI!"

He wasn't being very professional, running down the road still in his uniform and grinning, waving a wad of papers at the short riding duelist.  But with the news he had, he figured it could be excused just this once.

Yuusei turned around, though, noticeably moved by how excitable Ushio was being.

"Ah, Ushio, you... don't tell me..."

"Yup!"  He waved the papers around further.  "Progress!  We made progress on finding that friend of yours!  You're damn lucky, too, because if we hadn't known what to look for, we'd have just passed it over as idle talk!"

"Ah?"

"Mm, hm!  White hair, criminal marker down the right side of his face, good at riding a D-Wheel - but it was his play style that got attention."

"His... so Kiryu's duelling?!"

"Yeah."  And this was where he got serious and lost some of that excitement, because oh, boy... "Some punk's been asking around, 'how'd you beat a technique like that', and not just only does that suggest he's not honourable enough to figure it out for himself and get stronger that way, but also?  People've been saying he's tough enough as it is.  Been working on some kind of project, too, but no news on that."

Yuusei nodded, now somewhat distracted by his own thoughts on the matter.

"Mn, that's fine.  Have your people heard if he's mentioned anything else about this duelist?"

Ushio shrugged, although he could definitely see where Yuusei was coming from.

"Only really that he referred to this other guy with the handless strategy as a 'demon', but with duelists... that doesn't count for much."

"Aa, true..."

Yuusei's face flickered with something dark, and Ushio frowned, putting a hand on the shorter duelist's shoulder.

"Oi, we're gonna find him, got that?  And bring him back.  For that personal reason you've been keeping from us.  Just trust us Security guys to do our jobs, okay?"

The kid's eyes widened, blinked, and then he looked away slightly with a smile - one Ushio wasn't entirely unfamiliar with, but wasn't sure what it meant outside of an actual duel.

"He's going to be a dad."

Ushio stared, not sure that he'd heard right, dropping his hand back to his side.

"Eh... what?"

"Aa.  You heard me."

"Eh- bu- but that guy-!"

And what was with going to be?  Because there could not have been time for that kind of stuff, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know how it was supposed to work even if there had been.

"I want to believe that regardless the deck he's using, no matter what happened back then, he still has the chance to become the person I once knew again."  Yuusei shrugged, looking away, demeanour now awkward.  "Carly said that it was all right to tell you, since you were heading the 'sort of official search'."

Ushio stared at him.

"You mean to say she's... but I thought she was, I mean, didn't Jack...?"

The words came out hesitantly.  It wasn't really his place to say what other people were doing with their love lives, but this all seemed, well.  Odd, for someone he knew for a fact had still been going on about how much she liked Jack Atlas up until a while back.

Then again, just how long had it been since she'd gone on about Jack?  He'd noticed that Mikage's old charge had been grumpy for a while, but he hadn't put that together with the reporter girl, and...

He just hoped that this didn't mean Mikage would try and take her chances with Jack now that something seemed to be happening with the guy's girlfriend.  Ex-girlfriend.

"Mn.  It seems that she forgot anything between herself and Kiryu just as much as she forgot everything between her and Jack, after and up to a point.  It's part of why we're trying to find him.  Because she doesn't even remember what he's like."

He had to wince at that.

"Can't have been easy, then.  Finding out, I mean."

Yuusei's eyes narrowed in a distant frown. 

"It wasn't.  But she's doing well, despite that.  Like I said before - she's keeping it."

Yuusei stared, as if in defiance against whatever he might bring up as an objection, and damn it it wasn't as though he didn't have any, but...

"Mn," he said at last, scratching his neck.  He let his hand drop with a sigh.  "Hope she knows what she's getting into.  Even without the dad being a psychopath - no offense, Yuusei - a disappeared one can be just as bad, in some ways."

"...I know."

Ushio wasn't sure he did.  Kid'd grown up on Satellite, and people were different there, for better or worse.  Some things were more normal than others.  Getting back to the rest of the world - well.  People had expectations.  The kind that the Satellite-dwellers didn't have.  Usually.

Still, he was pretty damn sure Carly knew what people would think, and if she was still going along with it, well... that was her choice, then.

He just hoped they were all making the right ones.

...

Nico would clearly remember the first time that she could say that she and West were actually afraid of Kiryu.

West had followed the man to where he hid his D-Wheel, and at first, he hadn't minded their presence as long as they didn't disturb him.  Nico herself was perfectly happy busying herself with watching over West, and watching Kiryu himself, who was only really practicing and experimenting on his harmonica.

Things had seemed almost as though they were a normal family of sorts, whatever that meant.  Just out, enjoying the sun.

And then West had started to inspect Kiryu's D-Wheel a little too closely.

The first sign that something was wrong was when the melodic tunes began to fall flat at times, but at first she thought it was simple exhaustion.  Then they slowed.  West had found the screen, and managed to turn it on.  Silence, she noticed.  The harmonica was hanging limply from the man's hands, away from his mouth, his eyes wide with some emotion she hadn't seen from him before.

She opened her mouth to say something - tell her brother off, tell him he'd gone too far - but she was beaten to it.

Kiryu's hand was around West's wrist, her brother looking up in shock, the grip itself seeming far more tight and harsh than truly needed.

"Don't.  Don't ever.  Do that again.  Do you understand me?"

West nodded frantically, and Kiryu lifted him away from the bike with both of his hands and put him back down closer to Nico.  He still didn't release him yet, though.

"No, you don't.  But you aren't going to anyway, are you?"  He looked between them, from West to Nico and back again, and she found that her heart was racing, her hand at her mouth, as she nodded. 

"I'm... we're sorry, Kiryu-niisan..."

The words seemed to spark something inside him and jerk him out of his mood, because he let go of West's wrist like it burned him, clutching at his hand like it was on fire or in pain.

"You... you aren't the ones who should be sorry.  I don't know how you can still call me that."

"But, niichan, you..." West's voice was shaking, and it did indeed look like there was going to be a bruise there.  But it would heal.

Kiryu, however...

"There are things... things on my D-Wheel.  That I don't want anyone else to have to see.  They're my demons.  You guys shouldn't have to face them.  That's... that's why I don't want you messing around with it.  Got it?"

Kiryu was shaking.  She couldn't see his face, hidden by the shadows of dusk and his hair, but his voice, too, was shaking.

She nodded, but had to know.

"But, niisan... why not just take it off?  If- if it's a computer, you should be able to do that, right...?"

She didn't know much about computers, and West knew less.  But she did know that.

Kiryu, however, was shaking his head.

"I need it there.  It's my- my proof.  That it shouldn't be so easy to just forget the past."

Nico bowed her head.

"I'm sorry, then.  That we brought it up."

She had no response.

She held out her hand, and West put his smaller one in hers, looking up at his sister for reassurance that it was going to be okay.

Nico couldn't even say for sure either way.  But she lead her brother away anyway - they both needed space. 

Sometimes you just had to respect that a person's past was their own.  It was one thing she'd learned, in this town, and quickly.

"It'll be fine," she said in the meantime to West.  "You just pried too far, that's all."

"He's going to be able to duel tomorrow, right?"

She cracked a smile.  "Of course!" 

How could she believe otherwise?  Kiryu was always there at exactly sunset, playing that melody.

"We should get something cold on that," she fussed, not knowing where they'd be able to find such a thing unless it meant sneaking into one of the bars for the ice they used in their drinks.  "If you'd wanted to see how it worked, you could have asked.  I'm sure he wouldn't have minded too much, and this wouldn't have needed to have happened!"

They needn't have worried.  A few hours later, ice somehow appeared just outside their door, but the person who'd left it there was nowhere to be found when they looked out to see.

...

Several hours later, he was leaning back against the bike, head in his hands.

He'd gone too far.  He'd scared them.  He'd wanted never to be that person again, and he'd-

He took a shaky breath.  First one, then another, until the fear and pain gave way to a numbness that was both better, and worse.

He couldn't bring himself to delete the history stored away in his bike.  Like the bike itself, it was a constant reminder of what had been.

Not just of his own past... but of things that only he remembered.

The first time he duelled her.  Every training session, every practice match.  He could forget about the whys, the what fors, if only because the memories themselves had been good, isolated from anything else.

How...

How could he treat that as though it was something he had the right to pretend never happened?

...

It started with the little things.  Things that, as he was, he didn't notice.

She allowed his touch to linger, even when he didn't realise that he was doing so.  The sway of her hips just when she must have known he was looking.  The quirk of her mouth when she knew that he'd noticed.

He didn't add it all up until it was too late, because he wanted them to be there, because nothing would have pleased him more than to just give in.  To sink into the sensation.

When had they started kissing?  When had they ended up in his room, and why?  In just a moment, all of the entirely reasonable explanations fizzled out to leave him breathless, hands in her hair as he breathed her in.

This... this was what he'd wanted.  This...

This...

He pushed her back.  Away from him.  Gasped.  Leaned against the wall.

"What- why?"  She had to ask?  Really?  "I thought you wanted it..."

He turned back to her, eyes wide and still breathing heavily, clothes thankfully only rumpled and not removed, as he was sure might have happened had he not realised what was going on.

"Who the hell are you trying to impress?"

"What...?"

"I'm teaching you all this stuff so you can duel JACK.  You remember him, right?"

Carly hesitated, and he snorted.

"Sure you do.  And I bet I know what this was.  Just trying to get to him through me, is it?"

"What? No! I-!"

"No.  Never mind.  I don't- I-"

He pushed past her, escaping the confines of his own rooms, and trying - failing - to forget how good that had felt, while it had lasted.  But it couldn't. 

Rudger's words echoed in his mind - they had a job to do.  They were going to destroy the Signers completely.  Including Jack, and Yuusei... and they didn't have time for this.  Even if... even if he wanted there to be time.

The next thing he knew, he was in the garage, and then on the 'track', making circuits and attempting to focus on the road - or what would be the road, in just a few days' time - but he kept remembering her.

Her touch, her eyes, her smile, the way she laughed when she wasn't trying to put on a tough act for anyone.

No good.  It was no good.  He grimaced, and went faster - only to find her there, matching his pace.

"Duel me!" he heard over the audio link.

"And if I win?"

She hadn't been able to beat him up until now.  Always, he knew, she had seen him as an obstacle, and nothing more.  Jack had been the end goal, and he, Kiryu, merely a distraction.  Something that had cost her in every match, unable to focus on his moves.

"If you win, then it shows that nothing's changed!  But if I win," she said, revving the bike faster, overtaking him just slightly, "then it shows I'm capable of thinking of more than just Jack!"

At first he frowned, but then a smirk grew on his face, a smirk that bubbled into laughter.  Maybe this'd be satisfying after all!

"Duel, then!"

The geoglyphs didn't appear - they wouldn't, when the gods themselves weren't in their decks, waiting for the right fight in order to appear.  But they followed the course they were familiar with instead, turn against turn, speed against speed.  He noted how her control was getting better and better, her focus needed less on her movements and more on the game.  She held her cards with ease, and there were no emergency stops to pick up something dropped.

He read her moves, like he'd done so many times before, but she saw his just as well.  It was a constant banter of equal footing, despite her lack of a dark synchro.

She saw him.  She saw... him.

They rounded the last corner, and he saw her expression, just for a fleeting moment - smiling, no, grinning, enjoying the duel, right before she activated her trap.

She won.  Who knew what would have been the outcome if they'd had their gods on hand, but they hadn't, and the duel had ended with her win.

Yet it made him... satisfied.  And at the same time, hunger for more.  She was good.  Maybe, she could even do what she'd set out to do, and defeat Jack.

They came to a stop back by the garage, where they got off laughing with each other, and he leaned his hand on her shoulder as they did so, almost forgetting the reason why the duel had been declared in the first place.

Almost.  But not quite.

Not when her all-too-pleased smile caught him off guard, and she looked at his hand on her shoulder, she blushed, and rushed inside.  Confused, he followed after... only to find her talking animatedly with Misty, who sent him a strange look.

"I was just saying how far I've come!  Haven't I been doing well, Kiryu?"

Caught off balance by the question after everything that had happened, he blinked.  Then nodded.

"Mn.  She's going to win."

Misty looked between them, eyes narrowing, but he brushed past them both to find a comfortable chair after a long duel in the driving seat.  Which would have been relaxing, if it hadn't been for how Carly then thought that it was big enough for two when really it wasn't, and started talking strategy, just like that.

He fought to keep the heat from his face.  Dark Signers weren't supposed to be hormonal, they were supposed to be dead.  And they weren't, as far as he was concerned, supposed to blush. 

Something that was coming far, far too easily recently.

...

AN: For anyone who still had lingering ideas from the first chapter that it was possibly non-consensual?  Look.  HERE.  Because one, she's making advances, and two, he pushes her away.  Notably because he doesn't want to be second best, but still. When the premise of the Dark Signers is that they're driven by some kind of desire - lust/love, revenge, etc., it would have been entirely feasible for him to have just said 'sure' and gone with it.  

Kiryu, however, had the opposing 'desire' to not be satisfied with less than he thought he deserved.  And had been telling her exactly why she wasn't winning (not seeing him) which can actually be traced back manga-wise to the Y. Yugi vs. Mai duel in Duelist Kingdom.  Yugi was losing until he began seeing his opponent as an opponent, rather than a stepping-stone.