365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Solution Discovery

1/12/19

"Here it is," Yusei mumbled, the stifling atmosphere of the reactor site having gotten to both of them while they walked through it. It wasn't as bad as other things they'd experienced, but it was still worse knowing the place was semi-sentient.

The reactor room was huge, but it was also completely wrecked. The walls were scorched and burnt and the machinery for the reactor itself, though still standing, had clearly been untouched since the explosion.

Judai saw a different story, however.

"It's still trying to work," he said, looking closely at the reactor, "the duel energy is spinning very, very slow circles around it."

"Really? It shouldn't be able to do anything without any power, this place was disconnected from any power lines a long time ago," Yusei frowned, trying to think of anything that could help. He felt kind of useless in this situation considering the magical abilities involved in it, though maybe...

"Judai, I have an idea," he said, going through what he knew about the machine, "but we're going to have get close enough for me to break some parts off."

"What? Why?" Judai glanced over at him, clearly not liking the idea. "That thing's already done something to you, there's no way I'm letting you get closer to it, let alone touch it."

"Judai, what if it has it's own core? You won't be able to see it unless I strip away all the parts surrounding the heart of the machine where the main power units that connect it to the city are," Yusei responded, looking determinedly back at the shorter boy, "You might figure something out if you compare it's core to mine."

"But-"

"-besides, I trust you not to let the corrupted energy get too close, okay? I trust you, Judai."

Judai bit his lip for a moment before relenting, "Alright, okay, I don't like this but- fine. I won't let you down, Yusei."

Yusei smiled at him, tightening his grip on the boy for a second in thanks, before they walked over to the machine. He got to work stripping away the layers, making sure he didn't break anything more than it already was. Scrap parts could still be used for something, after all, and the machine was going to be rebuilt eventually anyways. He could feel Judai fidgeting next to him, his grip tightening every once in a while when Yusei had to reach further away to get rid of a bolt or screw holding a part in place.

Soon enough, however, the center was exposed.

Judai blinked at it before giving him a grin, "Well, looks like it was worth it after all. You were right, it does have a core. Good job, Yusei, I never would have thought of that."

"Just glad I could help," Yusei replied, looking away slightly in embarrassment. Judai was still as cute as ever, and Yusei had to stop himself from going further down that line of thinking by reminding himself that they were in a possibly dangerous situation... where Judai was voluntarily holding him close to keep him safe and happy that Yusei was clinging onto him in turn.

Crap, that was not helping.

Judai broke him out of his thoughts, luckily.

"I think I figured it out!" he said excitedly, "When you were a kid, it left an piece of itself on you - it's so obvious now that it's core is right in front of me, it's the exact same signature as the corruption surrounding your core - and because of that as you grew older, your core developed normally but worked according to the piece's instructions, which told it to expel the energy from it's source and spin it! However, because duel energy can't survive by simply being outside the core, unlike with the reactor where it stayed because of all the special equipment designed to keep it in the room and the fact that it was being semi-controlled and kept in this world by the reactor, it dissipates almost immediately, leaving you with nothing!"

That was a lot of word vomit to Yusei, considering the speed at which Judai was talking, but he got the gist of it.

"So... can you fix it?"

"Yup! I just have to extract the piece from your core and put it back in the other one, then the latent duel energy in this place shouldn't try latching onto you anymore and you should be able to start storing duel energy again. I couldn't just extract it beforehand because it would just latch right back onto you, but with it's original source here it won't do that. But, uh..."

"What is it?"

"...It's not a fun process. It's going to fight me, considering it's been linked with you for so long, and you're going to be in a lot of pain for as long as it takes me to get rid of it," Judai admitted, looking away nervously.

Yusei let go of him with one hand so that he could turn his face back to look at him. Judai's eyes glowed in the dark as he was still using his powers, but now there was unconcealed worry and fear in them.

"Judai, like I said earlier, I trust you," he said, "If that's what needs to happen in order to solve this, then so be it. Do you trust me?"

"Of course I trust you, but-"

"-then trust me when I say I'll be fine," he continued, not letting Judai look away from him again.

"...Okay. I trust you," Judai whispered.

Yusei smiled happily, "Good. Now, tell me what you need me to do."