365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

The Hunt Continues

3/13/19

Sho, for once, was right next to Jun as they stared dispassionately up at the tree that had a little piece of paper tacked to the underside of a branch at the highest point of it.

"Why? Why does he do this to us?" Sho muttered, slowly starting to get more irritated as this was the fifth place they'd been so far.

"Are you finally understanding what an idiot he is?" Jun asked, not bothering to turn to look at him while they both watched Johan cheerfully send Ruby climbing up the tree to get the hint.

"I already knew that," Sho replied, fiddling with his glasses, "But this is terrifying. He's got a smart person wrapped around his fingers, if we're right about them being together, so anything like this that he decides to pull will forever be ten times worse than before."

At this Jun finally turned his head, wearing a look of dawning horror, "Oh god, you're right. And unlike Kenzan and Johan, we actually live in this city with them."

Both of them grimaced and shared equal looks of despair, not noticing the exasperated looks Edo and Asuka were giving them.

"Don't they realize we live here too...?" Asuka asked, rolling her eyes at their moodiness.

"You know how they are, though I'm surprised it's taken this long for Sho to start being like this," Edo replied amusedly.

"A'ight, ready Ruby? Jump!" Johan called, catching the duel monster as she jumped down from the tree with a slightly ripped hint in her mouth. He pet her with a smile in thanks before taking the note and passing it to Kenzan to read while he helped Ruby re-settle on his shoulders.

"Come on you guys, I'm sure it won't be too much longer!" Kenzan yelled, gesturing for everyone to gather around. Sho and Jun did it with a grumble while everyone else laughed slightly at their plight.

"Oh joy, more of you," Sho mumbled, suddenly wanting to bash his head into the wall as they got to the tenth place. At this point it was starting to get late into the afternoon, and it was almost time for the sun to start setting.

The three Hero Kids in front of them laughed in response, flying easily around each other in the air before one tossed a scroll to Asuka.

"The only thing it says is 'Three brothers will receive the hint.'"

"Three brothers, huh? Wait, maybe the Ojamas?" Kenzan wondered, everyone turning to stare at Jun in response.

"Goddammit, I just knew he would find a way to make this worse," Jun scowled, calling out to his three duel spirits reluctantly. With a pop they all suddenly appeared, giving out similar cheers of 'Boss!' and crying. Jun's eye started twitching as he explained, "Just go over to the fucking Hero Kids and do whatever the hell it is you have to do so we can move on."

"On it Boss!"

"You can count on us Boss!"

"We got it Boss!"

"Just go already, geez!" Jun yelled, though everyone present could see how his eyes softened ever-so-slightly at the way the three Ojamas saluted him dutifully. Not like any of them would call him out on it though, since the only one that could do that without getting away unscathed was Judai.

Hilariously enough, not only did they get the hint, but now the Ojama brothers were materialized as well. Luckily for everyone there, they didn't smell like they thought they would and instead had a flowery scent for whatever reason.

"Well, at least now we know how Ruby was brought here," Edo said, watching as the Hero Kids flew off behind a nearby building and made their escape, "If a spirit makes contact with one of Judai's materialized monsters, then he can materialize them as well. Winged Kuriboh must've not left the cafe like we thought he had."

"That's Judai for you, though the amount of duel energy required to keep them all here for so long must be exhausting," Johan added, frowning in thought, "I can only materialize Ruby without a duel disk because Judai helped me out with it the... last time I saw him. But this many? Spanning across the entire city?"

"None of us here have the knowledge you do about duel energy, remember?" Kenzan reminded him with a smile, patting him on the shoulder, "You can nerd out with Judai when we find him, but until then we gotta keep goin'."

"Ah, right, sorry again. Habit."

"Please, please tell me this is the last one," Sho begged, giving the scroll a hopeful look, "This is the fourteenth one and it's almost nighttime."

"'Which flower doesn't belong?' is what it asks," Johan said, all but ignoring Sho. To be honest though, everyone was starting to get tired of this and were really just wanting it to be over with, except for Johan of course, who was still in very high spirits because he'd gotten to have Ruby out and solid all day.

The group gazed out over the little flower field, taking in the numerous colors as they waved slightly in the evening breeze.

"At least it's a pretty place," Asuka mumbled, thinking about how it might be a good place to come relax and read if she ever felt like it. It was still a park, after, but this particular section was pretty empty because it took a bit of walking to get to.

"Ah... wait, I remember now!" Sho said, understanding lighting up his face as he made his way over to a different section of flowers, "Ah ha! I was right, it's one of big bro's duel monsters! Dandylion, right?"

Said duel monster popped its head up out of the flowers with a happy cry, waving its petals around and picking up some balls of fluff in the process. Dandylion passed Sho the little hint with one of its leaves before it cut the energy connection and became a spirit again to let Judai know they'd done their part.

"Oh thank goodness," Sho sighed happily, reading the hint, "It says to go back to the beginning, in other words the apartment."

The whole group let out sighs of relief, ready to finally see their lost friend again. Johan just laughed amusedly at their apparent misery, sharing a grin with Ruby as they all made their way back to the apartment.