365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Before the First Tournament

1/7/19

"So how good of a duelist is this guy?" Jack asked, looking down from their special seating box; when you have the King of Riding Duels and the effective Savior of Neo Domino in the same place, you kind of get special privileges.

Though, it was also so that they could watch in peace and not get swarmed by people. It'd been pretty easy to obtain once they'd asked for it.

"Good enough that I have no doubt he'll win this thing," Yusei replied, fiddling around on his laptop.

Jack blinked over at him with an eyebrow raised, "Pretty high praise from you... Did you have to bring that thing with you?"

"I'll put it away when it starts, but Crow's not here to hide it away so I'm getting in some last minute tweaks to the newest section of the Ener-D project before we start testing it." Unfortunately, Crow was straight back to work after getting back, but he said he'd be watching the tournament whenever he could get access to a TV and wished Judai good luck with a pat on the back. Jack still didn't have a job, considering he was sitting on a rather full bank account and was the King of Riding Duels, while Yusei did a lot of work from home. The Ener-D reactor needed a lot of updating in terms of literally everything before the physical site could be used again.

However, now that he'd been distracted, Yusei was back to thinking about Judai. Before they'd left the apartment, Yusei had noticed he seemed slightly on edge. When he asked if he was nervous, Judai had looked over at him and hesitated for a few seconds before replying slowly.

"Not... nervous, so much as, I dunno- it's hard to describe," he said, looking away at the ground. He bit his lip, seemingly debating whether or not to tell Yusei this, but then continued, "I've done a lot of things I regret. It all had to do with duel monsters, and at some point dueling became something I did because I had to, not because it was fun. But... but now, for once, I'm kind of... looking forward to it? With all these new strategies, all these new monsters, it's- it's exciting."

And Yusei understood, because although he didn't know exactly what Judai went through, he still, at some point, had felt that same crushing regret. Had dueled because he had to. Had kept going and fighting because he had to, not necessarily because he wanted to.

Had felt guilty when he started to move past all of that. He still hadn't fully moved past it, but he understood the guilt Judai was feeling.

So he took Judai's hands in his and squeezed them gently, causing him to look up in question.

"It's okay to be happy, Judai," Yusei said softly, but surely. "It'll be hard to accept, and you'll never forget the pain of everything that's happened, but feeling excited for duels, being happy about life... it's okay to feel those things."

Judai stared silently for a bit after, but he'd smiled a small, genuine smile eventually and nodded.

"I'll try," he whispered, and it was really all Yusei could ask for.

"It's starting, put the laptop away you nerd," Jack said, breaking Yusei out of his reverie and making him smile.

It was time to see Judai duel. He hadn't been able to truly see how he dueled when they fought Paradox, but now he would get to and it was sure to be interesting.