Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Rainbow Stardust (OLD)

Chapter 2: Sector Security

They were serious when they said they'd take me in and give me a roof over my head. They've done more than just that by now.

Tank, Blitz, and Nervin work at a factory, from what I understand, and that factory is how people in Satellite scrape together enough resources or money to get food to eat. I was absolutely right in thinking I'd be a burden to them, but they don't seem to care that I'm just dead weight they're feeding.

Rally has been examining my wounds and exchanging my bandages. The scars on my arm won't go away, so it looks like I'll have to wait for them to heal on their own. Rally said they should be better soon, since it's already been a few days since he first found me.

During the time I've been staying with the others, they've really welcomed me as a member of their group of friends, even going so far as to attempt to find my Duel Runner, if it's still around, to match up with my hybrid Duel Disk and jog some more memories. To be honest, ever since I saw that scary room, I've been afraid to learn more about my past. At the same time, my morbid curiosity keeps getting the better of me. I find myself often switching between the two, never really settling on a single feeling for long.

Rally says that Yusei's been in such a rush to keep training and tuning up his Runner because he has a sort of mission he's been dead-set on for years and years now, and that soon we'll witness Yusei's first escape from the Satellite into the City. Apparently it's ordinarily illegal for anyone from Satellite to go to the City. (Why?) So Yusei has resorted to shirking the law itself and taking a 1 in 100 chance in an underground trash pipeline.

As gross as it sounds, it's the only way. Now I understand why Yusei was so quick to leave yesterday. Apparently his mind has been set on this for a long time, and when Yusei gets started on something, it's hard to get him to stop.

Rally has been helping me with regaining my confidence in my dueling skills. I've avoided using my Duel Disk for the time being, especially considering I don't want to carry it around and garner other people's attention. As it turns out, my Duel Disk really is a one-of-a-kind model, and a lot of people would do anything to get their hands on it.

I've also learned a few new things about myself in the past few days. For starters, despite my low self-esteem, I actually do have some objectively decent skills. Even I can't deny that I'm at least half-decent. One day, Rally found a torn folder of blank papers and fashioned together a pretty-looking pen for me to use. By now, I've gotten through almost one-fourth of the papers, and it's only been maybe two or three days. I do many different things with the papers. Sometimes, I write short stories or prompts, and others I draw things based on the Weather Painters or my friends.

But I've often found myself inspired to write simplistic blueprints of a vehicle. A Duel Runner, actually. Mine, most likely. But my drawings are too vague to truly resemble any actual vehicles. As it turns out, despite apparently being a Turbo Duelist and knowing how to do basic things with it, I can't draw machinery to save my life.

Just like I can't Duel!

No, that's not true. Rally and even Yusei have said it lots of times by now. I can Duel, I just need to get back into the swing of things and learn to re-balance my deck. Did something happen to it before?

Today was a day. Tank, Nervin, and Blitz were all watching the computer monitor Yusei had left set up, while I was going through my cards and double checking their effects to have them memorized. But I couldn't concentrate over the sound of the MC's voice from the laptop, and the guys were really, really loud.

I didn't mind it; they were enjoying themselves. But anytime they cheered that loudly for something, I couldn't help feeling left out, since I didn't understand what the hype was about.