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

Chapter 5: Recklessness At Its Finest

Three minutes. That was how long the pipeline was going to be open for, through which Yusei intended to sprint through as fast as he possibly could before he got crushed or suffocated or drowned or... whatever other horrible fates awaited anyone in the sewage pipeline if they didn't make it through in the alotted time limit. Supposedly, that was a single, monthly moment of respite for a maintenance check, to ensure nothing had broken.

Three minutes.

Yusei showed Sylvia his simulation, which she soon realized had indeed led up exactly to this moment. He'd been preparing for this for over a year, according to his friends.

Actually, in truth, that Duel Runner he was working on, the red one, was his second attempt. The first one was stolen by their ex-friend, Jack Atlas. Somehow, his name sounded familiar to Sylvia, but the others explained that when Jack made it to the City, he hit it big and became the Turbo Dueling King. It would've made sense for his name to have sounded familiar to her because of how famous he was, so she brushed off her feeling of deja vu.

However, the Runner wasn't all he'd stolen. He'd also stolen Yusei's ace card, Stardust Dragon, and taken it with him. Yusei spent over a year making an entire second Duel Runner from scratch just to go to the City and get it back from him.

Somehow, she felt as though she'd just gotten herself involved in a petty fight between children, not young adults. At least, that was what she'd thought at first.

But everyone seemed to have hope for Yusei, and even just talking about Stardust Dragon brought literal stars to their eyes. They described it as a dragon that could even light up a place as dark as the Satellite, and it was clear their hopes and dreams were tied directly to the card. Looking at it that way, it made sense how much effort Yusei was going through to get that card back from him.

"I wouldn't have cared if he'd just taken my Runner," Yusei said to her. "The Runner can be replaced. It would sting, but I'd get over it." He paused, collecting his thoughts. "Even if he didn't want to be friends with me anymore, I would've just let him be. But that card is precious for all of us, not just for me. I promised my friends I'd defend them with that card. Stardust Dragon is our hope, and Jack knew what he was doing when he stole that from me."

Sylvia hummed. "In other words, he challenged you to go after him."

Yusei nodded. "I don't know why. But I'm only going to the City for the card. I have no interest in living there full-time. Once I get the card back, I intend to go back to living like normal."

That answered another of her questions: what comes next?

But then, when he got that card back, that meant he'd be saying goodbye to Sylvia.

"At least, I was..." he sighed.

Sylvia glanced back at him, confused. "You... 'were'?"

"But now you're here," Yusei went on. "I think, before I challenge Jack, I should get you someplace safe, where we can collect data under the radar. If we want to find out more about your past, you can't go revealing yourself to the police, since they'll think you're from the Satellite--" Not to mention the police is garbage anyways "-- and you can't go to a hospital because like the police and Security, they're funded by the government director."

Sylvia groaned. "In other words, I'm an honest-to-god fugitive..."

He hummed in agreement. "I'd say so."

In order to get Sylvia up to speed with Yusei and to prevent incidents like earlier from happening again, Blitz, Tank, and Rally began teaching her some street fighting techniques to defend herself in case of an emergency. A lot of them included sucker punches, headbutts, and kicks to the gut and groin, since her short stature made it more difficult for her to uppercut anyone bigger than Rally. Blitz also taught her to hook her leg around someone when she was being grabbed from behind to try and force their knee to bend and grant her an opening to escape. Basic tricks like those, they told her, would help prevent another situation like what happened with Nervin.