365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Meeting Carly

4/17/19

Judai was pretty thankful that he wasn't unnerved by the crowd by the time quarter-finals came around, since this was when they started having only one duel at a time on-stage; it hadn't been only the final that was done that way, so it happened much earlier than he'd expected it to.

He passed the quarter-finals easily enough as his opponent got some pretty unlucky draws, judging from the way his eye twitched every time he drew during the duel. He's pretty sure the poor guy was supposed to have more in his back-row, but all he'd been able to play before Judai decimated him on turn seven was a single Mirror Force and a couple of face-downs that never saw the light of day.

No, what Judai focused more on during that bit of time while waiting for his opponent to play (he took pretty much all the time allotted per turn to play, which was... annoying after the first time it happened) was the crowd - or rather, the hordes of signs and other such things that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Only then did what everyone'd been telling him and Yusei the past few weeks really set in to his mind that they were really, really popular.

There were so many signs, ranging from a simple 'Go HERO!' to super decorated ones featuring Yubel and Winged Kuriboh LV10. After this tournament, where he'd actually been playing his heroes more than anything else, especially Elemental HERO Shining Flare Wingman and Elemental HERO Shining Phoenix Enforcer, there'd probably be a lot more added into those pieces. Honestly, it made him wonder if he could find fan-art of himself online.

He probably could.

He probably also didn't want to, for his own sake. People could come up with the weirdest things, and that was saying something coming from him - after all, he was fused with a duel monster and had a past reincarnation of himself in his soul and sharing his mind-space; he'd ventured through the spirit realms and seen some pretty messed up shit, and even then some of the stuff people thought up surprised him.

He was greeted by the sight of a slightly grumpy Jack Atlas once he got into the hallways again, accompanied by a girl with the biggest swirly glasses he'd ever seen in his life. Was that... really something that got made? It didn't seem very practical, could she actually see anything with those on?

As he got closer though, those thoughts were instantly wiped away.

"She's got shadow magic on her," Haou noted, "Not much, but it's there. Like it's a remnant more than anything else."

"Probably one of the people that got caught up in all the stuff that happened to Yusei," Yubel mused, a bit of sympathy leaking through the connection after a few moments, "From the way it's clinging to her though... It's like it's keeping her alive. I think it's safe to assume she was one of the people who got forced into becoming one of those Dark Signers Yusei told us about."

Should- should we say anything about this? Judai wondered, though he got immediate 'no's from both of them. He was inclined to agree, even if it would be right to at least inform the girl about it - after all, Jack seemed to be tolerating her and they clearly knew each other, so she couldn't be bad.

Judai would just have to ask Yusei about it later, and it was probably for the best, too.

"Hey Jack!" Judai chirped, waving as he came to stand next to the two and getting straight to the point, "Who's this?"

"Hey," Jack nodded back, stepping to the side a bit so he wasn't blocking the girl from him, "This is Carly, she's a good friend of ours and a reporter. Figured it'd be best if you met her now, seeing that there's going to be a lot of time between matches and she'll probably want an interview."

"Nice to meet you!" Carly greeted, and Judai swore her glasses sparkled as she grinned, "Jack here was just telling me about how you've never actually gone through an interview with anyone yet, I so need this! I wanna be the first to get it!"

Judai laughed at that, not having even thought about how he'd never actually been caught by a reporter yet, "Nice to meet ya too, and sure, why not? I don't mind."

"Don't let her push you into answering anything you don't want to," Jack huffed, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, "Also, let's not do this in the hallway."

"Oh! You're right!" Carly replied cheerfully, not even phased by Jack's less-than-sunny disposition, "Okay, let's go find somewhere else then!" She took off not even two seconds later, leaving them to stumble after her so they didn't lose track of each other.

"She's certainly happy," Judai mused quietly, just loud enough for Jack to hear it. He happened to look over at that moment, witnessing something he never thought he'd see.

Jack was giving her a soft look, seemingly forgetting for a moment about the fact that he was supposed to be annoyed at the world before snapping out of it and switching back to wearing the constant frown he usually sports.

But Judai had seen it clearly before it disappeared, and he smirked.

Jack glanced over at him and was immediately alarmed, his entire body tensing as he defensively stated, "Whatever you're thinking, it's wrong."

Judai merely raised an eyebrow, his smirk growing wider by the second as he continued to stare knowingly.

"You're wrong."

"I distinctly remember you muttering about 'Swirly Glasses' a couple times - so this is why, huh?"

"Shut up."

"Come on you guys, hurry up! I found an empty office room!" Carly called from in front of them, all the way at the end of the corridor they were in at the moment.

"We'll talk about this later," Judai conceded with a victorious smile, determined to make the most out of this juicy bit of information he'd had practically dropped into his lap.

Jack growled at him lowly, but seeing that this was a lost battle, settled with merely scowling at him distastefully instead.