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

Chapter 3: Yusei's Trust

Yusei knew he wasn't the best at explaining emotions or feelings. His words could never properly describe how his thoughts moved, or what his heart felt. Anytime he tried, there was some kind of mental block preventing it. His mind worked and felt faster than his mouth did. At one point, around the time he began to learn how to duel, Yusei gave up on rationalizing emotions and tried to instead focus on reacting to and coping with them. Words were meaningless in a battle of the heart, after all. As a result, he relied more on his actions than his words to express himself and live.

Instead of words, his mind worked more with mental pictures and visual descriptions. It was how he'd always learned as a kid, and it was how he organized his thoughts today. Hence, his simulations were never line-by-line codes, but instead movable three-dimensional models with color-coded annotations. It worked out great because listing out the features he wanted in his Duel Runner never worked for him, either. Instead, he always jumped straight into making a blueprint and figuring out what would go where, and how it would function. He always solved his problems that way. It just made sense. More sense than a to-do list, unless he needed to run an errand to grab multiple things.

Emotions didn't come easy to him-- at least, not in a verbal sense. But not once had he ever thought of himself as an emotionless robot, nor did he think his friends viewed him that way. He always made it perfectly clear that he treasured and loved his friends, and that they could come to him for anything. He also made it very clear that he wouldn't butt into their business. If they had lives that were private from him, that was their baggage, and if they wanted to share with him, they could, but they didn't have to. They deserved his respect as people with their own lives and their own business, just like he valued his own privacy and his own business.

The guys were a little rough around the edges, but overall they weren't bad people. Tank had a knack for saying whatever was on his mind, completely without a filter. Often he lacked the social awareness to be able to read a room, so sometimes he'd accidentally step on someone's toes (in a metaphorical sense) or say something insensitive without meaning to. Blitz had a habit of picking fights with people stronger than him. He was by far the smartest out of the group, and was doing well reining in his anger lately, but there were some times he couldn't help himself and had to distance himself from everyone else to cool down. At times like those, Tank would be the first to approach him and ask for a Duel, to get his anger out in a more healthy way. He also had a habit of silently judging others, and sticking his nose where it didn't belong. It was a miracle Blitz still had a nose with the kind of crap he got himself involved in. Nervin, on the other hand, was completely the opposite, and had a habit of overthinking, overanalyzing, and getting anxious about literally everything. Honestly, Yusei couldn't blame him. There were a lot of dangerous things in the world that needed paying attention to, and Nervin was simply trying to stay alive in a dangerous environment.

Rally had by far the saddest story of their entire friend group, not counting their new amnesiac. When he was only three years old, his parents had gotten arrested in the Industrial New Domino Facility (people typically just called it "The Facility" for short, and most would know what they meant, since it was the most infamous prison in all of New Domino City) and committed suicide after being worked to death. Homeless at a young age, Rally was taken in by one of Yusei's old friends, then later he began running around and scavenging. At some point, he learned about Jack and Yusei's past, and spent his time trying to rekindle the two's friendship, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Jack manipulated Rally into doing all sorts of things, including committing crimes and stealing from the southern factory. Thanks to that incident, Rally now has a criminal mark. However, unlike his parents, Rally persevered through the training program. After two months of rehab, he was sent back to Satellite with just a warning. They went easy on him since he was so young.