365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Reception

6/18/19

"I believe this is probably the single best idea you two have had yet," Edo hummed, catching them during one of the long waits between matches with Jun following right behind him.

"Why's that?" Judai asked, looking up from the basket of fries he'd been sharing with Yusei. Sure, they weren't the best thing ever, but they were hungry and something about events like this always made it seem better than it actually was.

"Have you two even looked at your phones?" Jun tsk'd back, holding up the holo-pad he had with him and pointing at the screen, "People are going wild over you guys. I, personally, don't get it but you're bringing a massive amount of attention to our business as a result, so thanks for that."

The Champion Couple! Tag-Duel Tournament of the Year - Exclusive Interviews with their Opponents! The screen read, going on to a picture of them walking onto the stage hand-in-hand. Judai had to give credit where it was due because that was actually a really good photo of them - it was just the right angle to catch Yusei's smile while also showing off his peace sign to the crowd.

"Think you could get that picture for us?" Judai grinned, pointing at it on the screen and getting an exasperated sigh from Edo.

"Of course that's what you focus on," he chuckled, "Sure, I don't see why not. It should be easy enough to contact the guy who took it and get the high-quality version of it."

"Sweet, thanks!" Judai replied, popping another fry into his mouth.

Yusei smiled at the scene, turning to the two to greet them, "Hey. Excuse him, I don't think he shoved enough pancakes into his stomach this morning."

Judai narrowed his eyes at him and pouted, but he knew it was ruined by the fries currently in his mouth and hand.

"He wouldn't be him if he wasn't hungry," Jun snorted, dragging a chair over to them, "Did you know he once, in the middle of a very important duel, stopped it so he could eat?"

"Oh, this should be good - even I haven't heard this one," Edo laughed, pulling up a chair as well, "Was it first year, then?"

To be honest, Judai couldn't exactly pinpoint which duel he was talking about - he'd eaten in the middle of plenty of duels, though in an important one? Then again, his definition of 'important' had been heavily skewed since those many years ago, so he probably knew it but it just was overshadowed by a lot of other things.

"For the Graduation Model Duel in our first year, the Kaiser chose Judai as his opponent and then proceeded to let him eat an ungodly amount of rice balls in the middle of it," Jun explained, smirking at the memory, "The reason? Because he wanted Judai to stop trying to think and instead duel with his gut. Then they tied with an attack of epic proportions."

"Oh! That's the one you're talking about," Judai realized, smiling at the reminder, "Yeah, I was trying too hard to predict him, and then I was super hungry! Luckily Ms. Tome was there and whipped me up a bunch of food on the spot and I started dueling normally again - that was a fun duel."

"So what you're trying to tell me... is that you dueled better when you stopped thinking," Edo stated, looking like he wanted to judge him so badly but then silently accepting the ridiculousness of it.

"That was first year, to be fair - I'm way better than I was back then," Judai defended, frowning and nibbling on the next fry he picked up. He'd matured a lot since that time - he'd been forced to mature since that time; he liked to think that he thought through things more, at least, and wasn't as impulsive as he used to be.

"We did just spend hours going over strategies together yesterday," Yusei chipped in, kicking him lightly under the table and smiling at him in reassurance.

"Still is a fuckin' hilarious story," Jun said, and that was something none of them could deny.

"Either way, about what you said earlier - I'm glad people are so excited about us. You should've heard our opponents so far, one of them said that they were just excited to get to talk to us, another was incredibly happy about losing to Stardust Dragon, and then the last pair squealed when I brought out Neos Knight using Junk Gardna," Judai stated, Yusei nodding along with him in agreement.

They'd come here to have fun, and having fun they were - it especially helped that everyone they'd been pitted against so far was a good sport and there for fun as well, so there were good times being had all around.

"Make sure you give us something flashy in the finals though, all your combos so far have been pretty basic considering it's you two we're talking about," Edo pointed out, "Show us what those supposed hours of strategizing led to."

"Don't worry, we've got plenty of tricks up our sleeve," Yusei said, sharing a look with Judai, "We haven't switched with anything in our side deck yet."

"Ah, so he does want to do that combo after all," Yubel cackled happily in his head, "Good, very good. Definitely do that one in the finals!"

Judai hummed in agreement, nodding at Yusei with a mischievous grin while the other two rolled their eyes at their antics.

They'd show off, alright - Judai was so making them find videos of it afterwards, because he already knew it was going to be quite the spectacle.