Yu-Gi-Oh LUCKS

Chapter 2: The Evil of Monji

In a pitch-black room, on three sofa cushions on the floor, Yuu tossed and giggled in his sleep. He loved to dream every time he slept, rolling the dice on whatever his mind could picture. Scenes from the street where he grew up, laughing. The feeling of rough hands shoving him into a truck, shuttling him into the dark earth. In truth, it was starting to all be the same dream.

He woke up a few minutes before the streetlights came on, and stood up woozily. Dreaming so much meant he never got a good night's sleep. Some coffee would settle that, though. In the meantime, he fumbled around his living space, quickly finding the wall, then the corner, then the shelf which served as his only piece of furniture. Yuu reached around behind it and felt for a leather strap. He retrieved Clavis's duel pouch, ratty and fraying, and undid the clasp. There, softly glowing in the dark, was the rectangular duradine crystal, his dueling deck. Yuu strapped it to his side, marveling at its weight. The hue was tinged blue from his newest card, his impossible find: Crime of Prometheus. The high-grade duradine card had changed every possibility and little reality. With or without it, he was going to work today.

A low buzz started to sound through the wall as the Atrium's generators kicked in. A line of light appeared on the floor across the room. Yuu pulled on his work coveralls and stepped outside, looking down the block as lightbulbs on strings juddered awake, casting sporadic orbs of light down the shantytown street. By Heart Excavation's temporal standard, a new day had just begun. Yuu now had fifteen minutes to get to work.

He walked across the street and knocked on Clavis's door. The old man was already fumbling around inside; any offer or entry by Yuu to assist him would be met with a thrown shoe. Then Yuu would have to go find that shoe, because it was half of all the shoes Clavis owned.

"I'm leaving without you," Yuu called in a singsong voice.

"The devil you are," Clavis growled, and ten seconds later he walked out. "Shall we get going?"

"We shall. Try to keep up," Clavis said, smiling as he took the lead.

Yuu followed Clavis into the somber swell of the morning foot traffic. Miners rubbed sleep out of their eyes and dirt into them; kids played around the algae respirators, making scary faces in the green light. Mothers and soon-to-be stood in doorways and watched, chewing on fruit rinds that had long lost their flavor.

There were independent groceries and shops in the area; the Atrium was legally considered a town, after all. In practice, though, Heart Excavation provided its employees with complimentary breakfast, so the entire town converged on Heart HQ in the morning. The neon pink sign was the one constant light of their town, its pulsing heart. Yuu found himself energized by it, walking through the steel gates towards the mining site.

The workers had separate lines for the coffee and bread, each of them already twenty people long. Yuu rushed to the coffee line; Clavis opted for the food. Each of them would snag a double helping and split it with each other.

Miners from different dig teams chatted together. Yuu got some arm-punches and approving nods from people he'd never spoken to. "You're the big-shot duelist who took down the chief," Clavis said, soaking his crust into the coffee to break it up. "Humiliated him, in a sense."

"I think they're laughing at both of us," Yuu said, smiling politely at the newest congratulator. "Just two idiots who built a deck with the duradine they're supposed to be selling."

"Well, you're the idiot who won. Be proud of that, at least." Clavis frowned. "Why so mopey now? You finally found your high-grade."

"I know. But what do I do with it?" Yuu finished his coffee and stood up to return the cup, and Clavis walked with him. "Either I try to make it to San Domino and get sponsored as a Duelist, or I sell the card now and that's that."