Dissatisfaction Town

The Arrival

The Duel Runner roared and spat dirt from under its wheel as Yusei rid across the desert to beat the setting sun. He spotted the town in the distance, buried among jagged rocks with the only visible sign hanging before the rows of centuries-old houses. Satisfaction Town it read, perched upon which sat a raven craved in wood. Yuusei stopped at the gate, parking his runner to the side and getting off, picking out his duel disk.

The landscape remained as depressing as he remembered but the people didn't. Market stalls lined the walkway led my smiling figures, their scars from The Facility proving no hindrance to finding work. Children ran in the street, laughing and playing with their parents, visible marks on their wrists from being previously held captive in the mines. "Excuse me?" Yusei called to one of them, who turned to see.

"Woah, are you a duelist?!" The kid asked.

"Yeah, are you?" Yusei smiled.

"Yeah, my dad is teaching me!"

Of course. The town of duellists raising duellists. Some things hadn't changed. "Do you know where Kiryu is?"

The kind smiled and nodded, raising a hand to point to the tavern. "In there!"

Shit, Yusei sighed. "Thanks kid," he ran for the tavern, opening it to find Kiryu with his old hang boss, sharing a drink across the table.

"Yusei!" Kiryu barked in alarm when he noticed the dejected man standing by the door, intense eyes flashing an intense glare at him, mouth pulled in a disappointed frown. He wondered how he must look, when Yusei was still so beautiful. So perfect and pretty, barely ageing a day except to get more ruggedly handsome, his commanding presence exuding power and confidence he was too moral to even notice. "I thought...weren't you coming on Saturday?"

"Kiryu, it's Saturday,"

"Oh,"

Radley clapped him on the back, smiling knowingly between him and Yusei. "Our new town mayor can be forgetful," he pauses, swaying slightly on his drunken feet. "I'll see you later, Kiryu,"

"Of course," he nodded, gesturing to the now empty seat which Yusei filled.

"I never should have left after all that happened..." Yusei sighed, reflecting into the muddy water of the drink sitting between them. "I should have stayed for a while. Made sure you were okay,"

"I am okay," Kiryu assured him unconvincingly, looking down at his own hand shaking in anger. "I'm drinking again - fine. But I'm the mayor of a town now. I have responsibilities that I keep. I'm rebuilding this into something better for the people who's lives I destroyed!"

Calmly, Yusei shook his head. "So that's it," he stood up, poncho swooping down from his shoulders and around his thighs. "You still haven't forgiven yourself,"

Kiyu calmed down, looking down as the sky darkened outside. He breathed deeply, exhaling out the pressure against his skull. A cathartic release of all that emotion. Not anger or aggression, but loneliness and frustration. Staring at this perfect man in front of him, less than an arms length away that might as well have been an entire universe. "Maybe,"

"Go home, Kiryu, you're drunk," Yusei ordered disappointedly. He knew how much Kiryu hated that, how devastated he was whenever he disappointed Yusei, when he exposed that vulnerable part of himself. "We'll talk in the morning,"

Yusei walked out but Kiryu followed swiftly, kicking up the dirt of the street he stumbled out onto. "Yusei!" He called, and the shorter man turned to face him. "The rules aren't what they used to be here. We can Duel any time, and it'll be safe. Just... letting you know,"

He couldn't see Yusei's face, but the wind began to whip around him as he turned back, walking away into the town, dissolving into a spec of dust in the horizon. "Goodnight, Kiryu,"